


The Premises are These (You & Me & Him)

by minchout



Category: CW Network RPF, Supernatural RPF
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-21
Updated: 2013-06-21
Packaged: 2017-12-15 15:45:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/851267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minchout/pseuds/minchout
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jensen and Jeff have been in a relationship for seven years. They're crazy about each other, but they have this thing they do to keep things interesting: Every once in a while, Jeff goes out, picks up a twink, and brings him home for Jeff and Jensen to share. Usually that's the end of it, but after they spend a night with Jared, neither one of them really wants to let go. They invite Jared into their lives, and this is the story of what happens between the three of them. Written for the spn_j2_bigbang.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Premises are These (You & Me & Him)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [equally_dour](https://archiveofourown.org/users/equally_dour/gifts).



_Jensen_

 

“Say it again, old man.”

 

“I love you.”

 

Jensen’s face was very close to Jeff’s. He had an up close view of every part of him, of every imperfection. He touched Jeff’s beard with his forefinger, brushed through the bristle of it, against the grain. Jeff grabbed Jensen’s hand in his own, held it down between their bodies and against the bed.

 

“Why are you so damn good to me?” Jensen said.

 

“Because you put out.”

 

Jensen snorted, turned his face into the pillow they shared, the warm, wrinkled fabric, and laughed. Jeff wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him in close, tucked Jensen up against him.

 

“I love you, sweetheart,” Jeff said, his lips moving against the crown of Jensen’s head. “There ain’t a damn thing on this earth that can change that.”

 

***

 

The first time Jensen saw Jared was at the Starbucks in the campus student center. Jared was a barista, and he was wearing this black t-shirt under his green apron, and the shirt was too small, his arms—tan, well-muscled for how skinny the kid was—poking out of the sleeves like straws out of  cups. The skin on his elbows was dry, just slightly more pale than the rest of him, and for some reason, Jensen was so hung up on that detail that he didn’t even notice it was his turn to order until Jared waved a hand in front of Jensen’s face to get his attention. And when Jensen looked up, Jared smiled this wide, gorgeous smile that seemed to Jensen almost impossible, and later Jensen would think that, if he was honest with himself, that was the moment right there; that was when Jensen Ackles went absolutely fucking gone for Jared Padalecki.

 

***

 

The day after Jeff brought Jared to his and Jensen’s shared house for the first time, Jeff apparently fed the kid breakfast then drove him back to the bar where the kid worked so he could get his car. Jensen didn’t know; he’d slept late, and when he woke, Jeff was on the couch in jeans and a t-shirt, his feet bare and propped on the coffee table, his reading glasses perched on his nose, and the Sunday paper spread open in his lap. Jensen poured himself a mug of coffee, grabbed his iPad so he could read the Sunday Times, too (and NPR and the Huffington Post and Al Jazeera), and curled up on the couch tucked under Jeff’s arm. They’d spend the day reading. Maybe later they’d watch baseball. The Rangers were playing the Mariners, and Jeff would root for the Mariners just to be an asshole; Jensen would tell him they weren’t gonna fuck for a week if the Rangers lost because of Jeff. The Rangers would lose, and they’d wind up fucking on the couch anyway, Jensen spread out beneath Jeff, Jeff’s big cock spearing him open. Jensen loved Jeff’s cock, begged him for it. And when they’d both come, both wrung out, sweaty and panting, Jensen would get on his knees for Jeff and take him into his mouth, clean Jeff’s beautiful cock for him in something as close to worship as Jensen ever got on a Sunday. When Jensen was a kid, he’d spent his Sunday mornings kneeling for God; he saw God just as clearly in what he did with Jeff as he ever had in the church.

 

***

 

Jensen loved Logic. He found something soothing in the idea that problems could be solved, arguments won, by applying a basic equation to the premises given. The world was a huge, terrifying fucking place, and Jensen was the kind of person who thought and worried about everything. He was a philosopher, and philosophy was all theory. Nothing was ever really certain in philosophy. But logic? Well, logic was certain. With logic, one could disprove God’s existence. But Jensen was a philosopher, and Jensen knew logic couldn’t be applied to everything. The world wasn’t as safely black and white as his logic class might make it seem. For example, Jensen could not, no matter how hard he tried, apply logic to Jared Padalecki. He’d tried, and he’d failed. The way Jensen saw it, the premises were these:

 

  1. Jensen Ackles was in a relationship with Jeff Morgan.
  2. Healthy relationships are monogamous relationships.
  3. If Jensen sleeps with Jared Padalecki, he will no longer be in a monogamous relationship with Jeff.
  4. Therefore, in order to have a healthy relationship with Jeff, Jensen should not sleep with Jared.



 

The problem, of course, was statement number two. Was it necessarily true that all healthy relationships are monogamous relationships? Can one have a healthy relationship that is in fact not monogamous? If the end goal was a healthy relationship with Jeff (and there was no doubt in Jensen’s mind that that was the end goal), did that goal have to be achieved through monogamy? So Jensen tried again, this time to prove or disprove the idea that a healthy relationship was necessarily a monogamous one. The premises were these:

 

  1. All healthy relationships are monogamous relationships.
  2. Jensen wants to have a healthy relationship with Jeff.
  3. Therefore, Jensen must have a monogamous relationship with Jeff.



 

But it was no good. He still could not figure out a way to prove that premise number one was necessarily true. Instead, the only thing logic was leading him to was a very troubling end result:

 

  1. A good relationship is one in which both parties are happy.
  2. Jeff is happy in his monogamy.
  3. Jensen is not happy in his monogamy.
  4. Therefore, Jeff and Jensen are not in a good relationship.



 

***

 

After class Tuesday, Jensen sat in his office grading his freshman Ethics class’s essays. He was bored, and sort of hungry, and he couldn’t stop thinking about the taste of Jeff’s cock when he took it into his mouth at the end of a long day. Jensen loved to suck Jeff before he’d showered, when he tasted like _Jeff_ and not soap. He loved to greet Jeff at the front door and get on his knees for him, make sure they were both nice and relaxed before they settled into their evening routine. Jensen would eat dinner with the taste of Jeff in his mouth and on his lips, and it was this taste Jensen was thinking about, the thought of that taste that was hardening his cock, when Jared knocked on his office door.

 

“Uh, Dr. Ackles?”

 

Jensen looked up, a startled blush creeping across his cheeks when he saw who it was in the doorway. Jared noticed the blush, and Jensen watched him relax when he saw it, watched a grin appear on his face.

 

Jensen cleared his throat. “Can I help you, Mr. Padalecki? I don’t have office hours right now.”

 

Jared shrugged. He shuffled a little from foot to foot and flicked the hair from his eyes with a jerk of his head. “I thought you might see me anyway,” he said. “I thought maybe…maybe we could talk about my test. I have a few questions…” Jared trailed off. He looked at the floor and pulled his hand through his hair.

 

“You got an ‘A’ on your test.”

 

“You aren’t going to make this easy, huh?”

 

“Make _what_ easy, Mr. Padalecki?”

 

Jared stepped further into the office; he closed the door behind him.

 

“Jared,” Jensen said. He sighed and sat back in his chair, tried to be cool, straightened his bowtie.

 

Jared pulled a chair up to Jensen’s desk and sat, his long legs jutting upward at the knees, and Jensen remembered what the kid looked like when he’d spread himself open for Jensen.

 

“How old are you, Dr. Ackles?” Jared said.

 

Jensen started to answer, then he stopped himself. “This is inappropriate,” he said.

 

“Asking your age is inappropriate?” Jared said. “I thought that was only true with middle-aged women.”

 

“You know that’s not what I mean,” Jensen said.

 

“Do I?”

 

Jensen started to get angry, but then he just couldn’t. Jared was staring at him, his eyes wide open, curious. It was all too obvious to Jensen that the kid was putting on an act. He was nervous, young, sitting in front of his professor, the professor who’d just fucked him two days earlier, and he was in way over his head. The problem was, so was Jensen.

 

“What are you expecting to get out of this, Jared?” This visit, this relationship—Jensen didn’t know what he was asking.

 

“Honestly?” Jared said. “I don’t really know.”

 

“Come back when you do,” Jensen said.

 

“It was hard enough to come here this time,” Jared said. He shrugged, laughed a little—a surprising huff of noise that made Jensen want to smile at the kid. “I had fun Saturday,” Jared said.

 

“Yeah,” Jensen said. “So did we.”

 

“We could do it again, you know.”

 

Jensen scrubbed his hand across his mouth. “No,” he said. “We couldn’t.”

 

“Why not?”

“Jeff’s my partner, and I don’t cheat on him.”

 

“I didn’t mean just you. I meant you and Jeff.”

 

Jensen nodded. He was very glad he was sitting at his desk because he’d already been turned on before Jared darkened his doorway and it was worse now, talking about it like this. He let himself think for just a minute what it would be like to have Jared, not as just a casual thing, but to really _have_ him. If Jared were his, Jensen could bend him over his desk right now, lock the door, shove his tie in Jared’s mouth to quiet him, and fuck him senseless, send him shaking, loose and dripping Jensen’s come, to his next class.

 

“Jeff and I,” Jensen said slowly. “We don’t do this. We don’t really do repeats. It’s nothing personal, Jared, it’s just…it’s not what we do.”

 

“You’ll make an exception this time, though,” Jared said. He grinned suddenly, looked at Jensen like he already knew the answer. “Tell you what,” he said. “I have a shift at the bar Friday night. Jeff shows up? I’ll tell my boss I’m sick. If Jeff doesn’t show, then I won’t bother you again.”

 

Jared smiled again, nodded his head once, rapped his knuckles against Jensen’s desk, then stood. He looked smug, like he’d gotten the better of Jensen. He probably had.

 

As Jared turned toward the door, Jensen stopped him. He handed the kid his test. “Don’t forget this. It’s what you came for.”

 

“Yeah,” Jared said. “Right. See you in class, Dr. Ackles.”

 

“See you in class, Jared.”

 

***

 

Jensen cooked dinner that night. He wanted to make something elaborate. He piled flour onto the top of the little two-seater table in their kitchen, dug a well into the flour with his hands, dropped eggs in the center, then kneaded a rough pasta dough. He rolled the dough flat with a beat up old rolling pin that had been Jeff’s alone before Jensen moved in. It had all been Jeff’s before Jensen moved in. Jensen had been a teacher’s assistant, a broke PhD candidate; he’d had one saucepan, one cookie sheet, a whisk, a big spoon, and a spatula; he’d left them all in his studio apartment when Jeff asked him to move in.

 

Jensen lost himself in cooking. He mixed ricotta with chopped spinach he’d sautéed with shallot and garlic. He cut the dough into squares, dropped the ricotta mixture into the center, then bunched the dough into little beggars’ purses. He thought of Jared’s hands while he worked, thought of the length of his fingers, the way they were tan on top but gave way to the pale skin of his palms, the vulnerable skin on the inside of his wrists. He thought of Jeff’s hands holding Jared down, clenched around Jared’s wrists and pressing them to their mattress. He thought of the noises Jared had made while Jensen fucked him, wondered if he’d sound different with Jeff’s cock filling him instead.

 

When he finished the pasta, he started the sauce, simmered cream and parmesan he’d grated by hand, mixed a bit of tomato paste and a touch of vodka into it, grated garlic cloves until his fingers stank of them.

 

He was pulling the pasta purses from the boiling water with a strainer spoon and dumping them into the sauce when Jeff got home. Jensen turned to say “hi,” and his face caught in the steam from the water and it fogged his glasses. Jeff walked over to him and hooked the glasses off his face with a finger.

 

“Hey, sweetheart,” he said.

 

Jensen didn’t say anything; he reached out, smoothed his hand up Jeff’s chest and over his shoulders.

 

“You cooked?” Jeff said. “Bad day?”

 

“No,” Jensen said, his voice rough. “Jeff?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Fuck me?”

 

A light tremor ran though Jeff at the words. Jensen felt it against his hands. Jeff huffed a breath.

 

“Yeah, sweetheart. C’mon.”

 

He took Jensen’s hand and started to tug him out of the kitchen.

 

“No,” Jensen said. “Here.”

 

“Oh, yeah?” Jeff said. He backed Jensen up until he was against the counter. “Is that what you want? You want me to push you down on the floor? Put you on your hands and knees? Make you all loose, make you beg for my cock?”

 

“Yeah,” Jensen said. “Yes. Please.”

 

Jeff took him by the shoulders, turned him. Jensen’s hands slapped down on the counter so he could brace himself. Jeff pressed his hand between Jensen’s shoulder blades, moved it up and over the nape of his neck, cradled the crown of his head, pushed him forward. He leaned in, blanketing Jensen’s back, all warm heat and rough hands. His beard scratched at Jensen’s neck as he mouthed across the skin, bit just hard enough at Jensen’s jaw to make him shiver.

 

“You’re gonna take what I give you, right sweetheart?” Jeff said, his breath warm against Jensen’s ear. “You’re gonna spread your legs for me like a little slut, take my cock like you’re dying for it, like it makes you whole.”

 

“Jesus, Jeff, just fuck me.” Jensen was shaking almost uncontrollably, spreading his legs as far as he could with his jeans still on, pressing his ass back against Jeff’s hard cock, begging every way he knew how.

 

Jeff took him by the neck and brought him to the floor. He pulled Jensen’s jeans down so that they were around his thighs, and Jensen’s knees burned from the friction of skin on denim on kitchen tile. Jeff grabbed a fistful of Jensen’s hair, pulled his head back as he fucked into him. Jensen wanted to cry at the burn, fuck it hurt, almost no prep, nothing but a couple of fingers and some spit to slick the way, but Jensen needed it like this right now, so he pushed back into Jeff as much as Jeff’s hold on him would allow, squeezed himself around Jeff’s cock until Jeff’s moans were as loud as his own. Jeff came inside Jensen, Jensen’s cock still hard and bobbing against his stomach, Jeff’s face pressed and mouth panting against the back of his neck. When Jeff caught his breath, he pulled out, and Jensen hissed at the burn, let Jeff flip him onto his back. They tussled with Jensen’s jeans, both of them tangled in the denim until Jensen was laughing, feeling crazy and breathless, and when the pants were finally gone, Jeff grinned at him, pulled him in by the hips until they were pressed together, Jensen’s legs hooked over Jeff’s shoulders, and Jeff went down on Jensen, took Jensen’s cock in his mouth, blew him senseless.

 

When they’d both caught their breath, Jeff picked Jensen up off the floor and deposited him on one of the kitchen chairs. He winced at the hard chair on his now very sensitive ass, and Jeff ran a hand through his hair, leaned down and kissed him on the top of his head.

 

“You’re gonna be walking funny tomorrow, kid,” Jeff said.

 

“It’s worth it,” Jensen said. He smiled up at Jeff. “I’m hungry.”

 

Jeff nodded. He pulled the pan of pasta from the stove and grabbed a couple of forks, sat at the table across from Jensen and put the pan down between them. He slid Jensen a fork. They ate right out of the pan.

 

“I worked hard on this,” Jensen said, feeling a little sulky as he speared a bite with more force than was probably necessary. It at least deserved a plate.

 

“It’s good,” Jeff said. When he smiled, there was sauce stuck in his beard.

 

Jensen snorted a laugh.

 

They ate in silence for a few minutes, but Jensen could feel Jeff watching him.

 

“What?” Jensen said finally.

 

“You sure you didn’t have a bad day?” Jeff said.

 

“It was fine,” Jensen said.

 

“Okay,” Jeff said. The word was drawn out, like he was trying to decide if he believed what Jensen said or not

 

“Jared came to see me,” Jensen said finally.

 

“Ah.” Jeff sighed a little, pulled the sauce pan closer to him, ate some pasta. “I knew we shouldn’t have fucked one of your students.”

 

“It’s fine, old man. It wasn’t like that.”

 

“What’d he want then?”

 

“To do it again.”

 

Jeff nodded like he wasn’t surprised. He looked thoughtful. “What did you say?”

“I told him we don’t do repeats,” Jensen said.

 

“Okay,” Jeff said.

 

“Was it the right thing to say?”

 

Jeff raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know, sweetheart. You’re the one who came up with that rule when we first started doing this.”

 

“I know.”

 

“Is there a reason you think it wasn’t the right thing to say?”

 

Jensen shrugged. “I don’t know. Is there a reason we shouldn’t do it again? I mean, we all had fun, right?”

 

“Yeah,” Jeff said, slow. “We had fun.”

 

“So?”

 

Jeff pushed the pasta away, sat back in his chair. Jensen watched his fingers twitch against the table and knew Jeff was thinking about how good a cigarette would taste just then. He smoked when Jensen first met him, but he’d quit almost five years ago now. Jensen stood, pulled a rocks glass from the cabinet and poured Jeff a couple of fingers of the good bourbon they kept for special occasions. Jeff took the drink with a quirked eyebrow, like he knew what Jensen was doing. Jensen remembered suddenly the first time they slept together. Jensen had shown up at Jeff’s place with a bottle of wine and a couple of steaks that had cost him his week’s budget, and he’d heated Jeff’s ancient gas grill and cooked him steak and baked potatoes and fresh corn on the cob. It was summer, the school year had ended a couple of days before, and Jensen was officially no longer Jeff’s TA. He’d switched advisors so he could maybe get Jeff to think of him as something other than his student. It was hot in Jeff’s yard, the sun strong, and Jensen was sweating, his t-shirt stuck to his back, and Jeff had taken everything Jensen had offered, an amused, smug smirk on his face that had pissed Jensen off, and as Jensen set a plate of food in front of Jeff, Jeff had grabbed him by the wrist, tugged him until Jensen was sitting in his lap, then he’s put his lips against Jensen’s ear, said, “You ain’t gotta butter me up, sweetheart. You want something from me, all you gotta do is ask.” And Jensen had asked. Before the night was over, he’d damn well _begged_.

 

And now, Jeff was sitting there looking at him with that same quirked eyebrow, and he said “Why’re you trying to butter me up, Jen?”

 

“I’m not.”

 

“Uh huh.”

 

“Really, Jeff. I’m really not. You just looked like you could use it.”

 

“Okay,” Jeff said. “Okay. So you want to bring him here again, then.”

 

Jensen shrugged. “He offered. I just don’t see why we should say no.”

 

“Okay.”

 

***

 

_Jeff_

 

It wasn’t unusual in the gay community for an older man to take a younger man under his wing, so to speak. Jeff sort of hated that phrase, as if Jeff were some sort of mother bird raising young until they were ready to fly on their own. But all the same, the phrase fit. Jeff’s first real boyfriend had been more than ten years older than him. Jeff had run away from home when he was seventeen, found himself in New York in the party scene with the club kids, got into a shit load of trouble, but then Jackson found him, took him in, showed him what it meant to be loved, helped him through school. Jackson died of AIDS three days after Jeff graduated from college when Jeff was twenty-two, twenty years ago now, and Jeff missed the man every fucking day of his life. He kept a picture of the two of them in his wallet; Jeff looked young in the picture, careless, a leather jacket with a popped collar, aviators and a shit eating grin, and Jackson had his arm around him and was staring at Jeff as if the sun shone from his ass. The picture was from right before Jackson started getting really sick. It had been a good day, that. Jackson had bought Jeff his first Harley, and Jeff had taken him back to Portland to meet the parents, then they’d gone further west. The picture was taken the day they’d spent touring the Pacific Coast, and at the time, Jeff had thought he could never be happier.

 

Jeff was old enough now to know he’d never really been in love with Jackson. He’d loved the man, had been devastated when the disease began to ruin his body, but he’d loved him as a mentor, a friend. Jeff truly believed that, even if Jackson were still alive, he would have ended up right where he is now, teaching at this little Midwestern college and going home every night to be with the love of his goddamned life. Jensen called Jeff a sentimental old man whenever Jeff talked like that—Jensen didn’t go in for the mushy stuff—but Jeff didn’t give a shit. Jensen was his and he was Jensen’s and they were meant to be together. He thanked his goddamn lucky stars every morning he woke up with the kid in his bed.

 

Jeff honestly didn’t know what to make of Jensen’s sudden interest in Jared Padalecki. He was a good looking kid, sexy as fuck in this completely unassuming way, like Jared knew what he had but was a little unsure of it all the same; and he seemed smart, seemed interesting. But a lot of the guys Jeff and Jensen took home had those qualities, and Jensen had never once shown an interest in fucking them more than once. And none of those guys had been Jensen’s student.

 

That Friday night, Jeff sat at the bar and watched Jared work, just like he had the Saturday before. The kid was busy, and he hadn’t seen Jeff yet, and Jeff thought maybe that was for the best. He was with Jensen on this; he wanted to take the kid home with him; he just didn’t know if he _should_ take the kid home with him. Maybe he should go home and tell Jensen that Jared wasn’t interested, that he’d changed his mind. He and Jensen could go on living just like they had been, take someone home with them every once in a while, just for a little fun. But Jeff wouldn’t do that. He’d seen that look in Jensen’s eye, the one that said I want what I want. Jeff didn’t know what it said about him that he caved to that look every fucking time.

 

When Jared finally noticed Jeff, he smiled tentatively, tucked a strand of hair behind his ear and moved to Jeff’s end of the bar.

 

“Hey,” Jared said, yelling a little to be heard over the noise of a bar full of college students on a Friday night.

 

“Hey, yourself,” Jeff said.

 

Jared smiled again, wider this time, and Jeff watched as he took a glass from beneath the bar, filled it with a double shot of Maker’s Mark, and slid it to Jeff.

 

“On me,” Jared said.

 

“You won’t get in trouble for that?”

 

Jared shrugged. He looked like he couldn’t take his eyes off Jeff. He was biting a little at his lower lip, his eyes tracking Jeff’s hands as he took a drink.

 

“I didn’t think you’d come,” Jared said finally.

 

“Disappointed?”

 

Jared shook his head. He tucked his hair behind his ear again when the movement shook a strand loose. Jeff imagined burying his hands in that mop of hair and holding Jared down, leading his mouth to Jeff’s cock. He widened his legs a little, his jeans growing steadily too tight.

 

“How do you wanna do this, Jared?” Jeff said.

 

“Finish your drink and go out to your car. I’ll meet you out there. I haven’t been feeling well.” He grinned. “I’ll tell my boss you’re here to take me home.”

 

“You don’t need to leave early for us. You know where we live. We’ll still be there when you’re off.”

 

“I want to,” Jared said. He shrugged.

 

“Okay,” Jeff said. He tipped his head back and shot his drink, left a ten on the bar, then slid off his stool and into the crowd.

 

***

 

Jeff expected the drive to the house to be quiet. They both knew what they were there for, what was waiting for them. They weren’t friends. If this was someone he had picked up at a club, they wouldn’t talk. They’d both be tense, the car thick with arousal, anticipation, Jeff might rub the guy’s cock through his pants as he drove, get him all worked up and horny for Jensen waiting back home. A few times when he’d done this, the twink had wanted to suck his cock before the got where they were going, but Jeff always said no. He didn’t think Jensen would really mind given the fact that fucking was the plan, but still, Jeff didn’t feel right about it, didn’t want his cock in anyone else’s mouth unless Jensen was getting off on it.

 

Jared, though…Jared wasn’t quiet.

 

“You guys do this a lot, then?” Jared said. He played with Jeff’s radio, found some dance music on one of the local stations, smiled, and turned to face Jeff. “Take home twinks and fuck ‘em senseless?”

 

“What makes you say that?” Jeff turned the music down a little, which seemed to amuse Jared.

 

“Dr. Ackles said you don’t do repeats, which makes me think you do this often enough to have rules. So?”

 

“So?”

 

“Soooo,” he said, rolling his eyes and drawing the word out like what he meant was obvious. “Do you do this often enough to have rules?”

 

Jeff shrugged. “We do it occasionally.”

 

“What’s ‘occasionally’? Like, once a month? Every weekend?”

 

“Jesus, kid.” Jeff shook his head.

 

“I’m not trying to be nosy.”

 

“Uh huh,” Jeff said. He looked at Jared side-eye.

 

“Okay,” Jared said. “I am being nosy. But I think I deserve to know, don’t you? I mean, I’m the one who’s gonna have a cock up his ass by the end of the night, I think I should probably know what I’m getting myself into with the two of you.”

 

“Don’t you think you should’ve thought about that before you went to Jensen’s office and asked for seconds?”

 

Jared nodded. “Probably. My dick doesn’t always listen to my head, though.”

 

“You’re eighteen. Of course it doesn’t.”

 

Jared smiled; Jeff caught a dimple in the half-light, and it made him smile back at the kid.

 

“You like that, don’t you,” Jared said, “that I’m only eighteen.”

 

Jeff cleared his throat, shifted in his seat. “You make me sound like some kind of pervert, or something.”

 

“You are,” Jared said. “Lucky for you, I think it’s kind of cute.”

 

“You do, huh?”

 

Jared shrugged, changed the radio station to something playing classic rock, the Stones singing “Paint it Black.”

 

“Was Dr. Ackles my age when you got together?”

 

“You can call him Jensen, you know. As you said, his cock _is_ gonna be up your ass by the end of the night.”

 

It was Jared’s turn to shift in his seat then. He rubbed his palm up and down his thigh like he wanted to adjust his dick in his pants but was refraining out of some sort of misplaced social nicety.

 

“I think I’ll wait for him to tell me that,” Jared said. “If you don’t mind.”

 

“Whatever floats your boat, kid.”

 

“You didn’t answer my question,” Jared said. He turned off the radio now, turned fully to face Jeff.

 

Jeff wasn’t sure if he should answer, but he found himself unable to stop. “No,” he said. “Jensen was twenty-five. He was working on his doctorate. I’d just been given tenure. Lucky thing, too, or I probably would’ve been out on my ass.” He smiled a little remembering that Jensen, how he’d kept his hair a little too long, how young he’d looked with that thin freckled face, all big eyes and pink lips, how he’d never seemed to have any money or enough to eat and all of his jeans had patches at the knees. Jeff used to catch him napping on the ratty old couch in the Adjunct faculty office in between classes, and he’d taken to bringing coffee in with him just to see the pleased smile on Jensen’s face when he woke.

 

“They weren’t happy you were fucking your student, huh?” Jared said.

 

“We didn’t. I mean, we weren’t fucking while he was my student. I was his advisor when he started the program, but he transferred to a different professor when we realized what was happening between us.”

 

“So it wasn’t like with me, then? It didn’t start out as just a fuck?”

 

“Jared,” Jeff said.

 

“Sorry,” Jared said. “Too personal? I’m just curious. You guys seem happy. I mean, who the fuck knows if you really are, right? But you _seem_ happy. I want that someday, you know? So I guess I’m just wondering how it happens.”

 

Jeff laughed. “Christ, kid, I really don’t know if me and Jen should be your gold standard.”

 

“We’ll see about that,” Jared said. He sat back in his seat and turned the radio back on.

 

***

 

Jeff found Jensen in their bedroom sitting at his desk and hunched over his laptop. He was typing furiously, his hair was in crazy spikes on his head, and his glasses were smudged like they got when Jensen was distracted and couldn’t stop pushing them up his nose. He always got fingerprints on the lenses then made Jeff clean them for him.

 

“Jen?” Jeff said.

 

Jensen startled. “Jesus. I didn’t even hear you come in.”

 

“What are you doing?”

 

“There’s a bunch of e-mails going around the department about that fucking exit exam the administration's suddenly so excited about.”

 

“Well, we can talk about that later. Jared’s here.”

 

Jensen quirked an eyebrow, licked his lips.

 

“C’mon,” Jeff said.

 

Jensen stood and followed Jeff out to the living room, where Jared was sitting on the couch, holding a beer. Jeff felt sort of guilty about giving the kid alcohol (which really made him feel like an old man; he’d had his own first beer when he was thirteen), but given what Jared was here for, Jeff guessed it didn’t matter so much.

 

“Hey, Dr. Ackles,” Jared said. He rubbed at the nape of his neck with one of his big hands.

 

“I told him he could call you ‘Jensen,’” Jeff said.

 

“No,” Jensen said, his lips quirking into a smile. “I think I like ‘Dr. Ackles’ for now.”

 

Jeff snorted. “You want a beer?”

 

“No,” Jensen said and he looked over at Jeff, and Jeff was startled to see his pupils already blown with arousal, a flush on his cheeks like just the sight of Jared turned him on beyond belief. “Thanks,” Jensen said. He went to Jeff, kissed him open mouthed, and when he pulled away, Jeff felt a little breathless.

 

Jensen walked to Jared, and Jared watched Jensen move. One of Jared’s hands was moving up and down across his thigh and his other hand was gripping his beer bottle tightly. When Jensen perched on the couch beside him, Jared turned so that he and Jensen were facing each other. Jensen took the beer from him and set it on the table.

 

“Are you okay, Jared?” Jeff said. “Is there anything you need?”

 

“Uh, no,” Jared said. “I’m good.”

 

Jensen leaned in close to Jared, found the hem of his t-shirt and tugged at it, encouraged Jared to lift his arms so Jensen could pull the shirt over his head. Jensen pressed the palm of his hand to Jared’s chest, kneaded the skin a little, swiped a thumb across Jared’s collar bone, and Jeff watched as Jared shivered at the touch, his shoulders flexing, the blades of them moving up and down, once. When Jensen’s thumb brushed across Jared’s nipple, Jared’s hands clenched in his lap.

 

“You wanna touch me, Jared?” Jensen said.

 

Jared nodded. His mouth was open slightly, his lips wet. Jeff moved closer to them, pulled one of the arm chairs over so he was directly in front of the couch with a better view. He felt like a dirty old man sometimes when it was like this, Jensen acting and him watching. It made him so fucking hard to watch Jensen doing this that it was a little crazy, like some bad porn flick or something. But right now, Jeff didn’t care. His cock was straining against the fly of his jeans and Jensen was stripping his own shirt off, Jared’s eyes tracking the movement then flicking down to Jensen’s bare chest, the expression on his face hungry for what he saw, and Jeff wanted to be nowhere else but here.

 

Jared moved his hands to Jensen’s chest, mirroring Jensen’s own movements. He started slow, just touching, just feeling the skin, then he brushed a thumb across Jensen’s nipple, and at Jensen’s hitched breath, he got a little more brave and pinched the nipple, rolled it between his thumb and forefinger. Jensen’s head tipped back a little and his eyes closed. Jeff could tell he was holding back a moan. Jensen had always been like that, so damn responsive in the sack, and Jeff wanted to hear it now, wanted to see what Jared could do to his boy.

 

“Do it like that, Jared,” Jeff said, his voice low, encouraging. “Jen gets off hard on nipple play don’t you Jen?”

 

“Fuck,” Jen said, shuddering as Jared tugged the nipple harder and moved his free hand to work the other.

 

“He’s a slut for it,” Jeff said. “Could get off just like that.”

 

Jared was openly panting now, completely mesmerized watching Jensen; he leaned in tentatively, like he still wasn’t sure he was allowed this, and put his mouth to Jensen’s neck, and Jensen tipped his head back further to give him access. Jared kissed up Jensen’s neck to his jaw, where he stayed, sucking a bruise into the soft skin.

 

“That’s it, Jared,” Jeff said. He rubbed at his cock through his jeans, where it lay fat and needy against his left thigh. He wanted to make this last, so he didn’t take it out quite yet.

 

Jared bit Jensen’s jawbone and Jensen jerked away, gripped Jared’s hair at the nape of his neck and pulled them together. He fucked his tongue into Jared’s mouth until Jared was moaning and melting backwards into the couch, and when Jensen pulled away, Jeff saw his teeth were gripped on Jared’s bottom lip, and Jensen tugged it until Jared cried out. Jensen sat back then, a smirk on his face. He licked his lips and slid off the couch, forcing Jared’s knees apart so he could kneel between them.

 

“You’ve been blown before, right Jared?” Jensen said. He rubbed his hand up Jared’s crotch, started flicking the buttons open one by one.

 

“Not by anyone like you,” Jared said.

 

Jensen smiled, and it looked warm, reassuring, none of the cocky asshole that was usually there when he fucked a twink he planned to throw away by the end of the night.

 

“What makes you think I’m any different than anyone else you’ve ever had?” Jensen said. He had Jared’s cock out of his pants now and was stroking it slowly, teasingly, long strokes from root to tip, letting the head slip through his palm before stroking again, and Jared was shuddering, trying to focus on what Jensen was saying but not having much success.

 

“Oh,” he said. “I just…have a, a hunch.”

 

Jensen laughed openly and raised himself up on his knees, flicked his tongue against the head of Jared’s cock.

 

“Jesus fuck,” Jared said.

 

“Jeff?” Jensen said.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Why don’t you come sit next to Jared where you’ll have a better view?”

 

Jeff was up and on the couch in a few seconds and Jensen looked up at him, kept his eyes locked on Jeff’s face as he covered his teeth with his lips and took Jared into his mouth.

 

Jared had a big cock, probably the biggest Jeff had seen, and it was beautiful right now, straining, and angry red, Jensen’s fist wrapped around the base of it. Jeff knew Jensen wouldn’t be able to take the whole thing, but he also knew his boy well enough to know he’d gag himself trying, and Jeff wanted to encourage him. He curled the palm of his hand around the crown of Jensen’s head, said, “That’s right, boy. Take that fat cock. I want you gagging for it. You take him all the way down your throat, I’ll let you fuck him later as a reward.”

 

Jensen moaned around Jared’s cock, and Jared cursed a blue streak. Jeff took one of Jared’s hands and put it on Jensen’s head where his own had been a few seconds before. “There you go,” Jeff said to Jared. “Help him out. Feed him your cock.”

 

Jared’s hips humped upwards once, twice, three times like he just couldn’t help himself, and Jensen gagged and pulled off with a wet <i>pop</i> that nearly had Jeff coming in his jeans, and suddenly Jared was spurting all over the place, shooting right across Jensen’s upturned face, his come messing Jensen’s cheeks and lips and mixing with the drool on his chin.

 

Jensen looked a little startled, his face upturned, flushed and sweaty beneath the come, his lashes long and soft against the skin beneath his eyes; Jeff grabbed him by the shoulders and manhandled him up and across Jared’s lap, cradled his face in his hands, and cleaned the come from his skin with his tongue, licked until he was clean then mauled his mouth while Jensen moaned and squirmed in his lap. He dragged his mouth to Jensen’s ear.

 

“You wanna suck me too, Jen? Want me to paint that pretty face a second time?”

 

Jensen nodded, buried his face in Jeff’s shoulder. Jeff was looking at Jared, who was looking back at him with wide eyes, his face bright red beneath the tan, his hair mussed in the back, his tongue flicking out over his lower lip. He was kneading Jensen’s ass, one long finger moving back and forth over the seam of the denim, pressing hard enough over Jensen’s hole to have Jensen squirming in his lap, and all of a sudden Jeff liked the idea of Jensen getting fucked a lot more than he wanted his cock sucked. Or hell, why couldn’t he have both?

 

“Jen,” Jeff said. “You wanna get fucked tonight, sweetheart? Could barely fit that big cock of his in your throat; wanna see how it feels in that tight little hole of yours?”

 

“Jesus,” Jared said.

 

“Jesus,” Jensen agreed.

 

Jensen pushed himself up and off of Jeff. It looked like it took some effort. When he was standing, his cock was straining against his jeans, and he made quick work of taking the jeans off and kicking them across the floor. Jared was moving, too, pulling his pants off the rest of the way and watching Jensen with a hungry look, his cock already stirring again, chubbing up and halfway to hard. When Jensen was naked, he crawled into Jared’s lap and rested on his shins, his legs straddling Jared’s thighs. He tilted Jared’s face up to look at him, leaned down, kissed him on the forehead, between his eyes, on the tip of his nose, then pressed a kiss to his lips, flicked his tongue out and coaxed Jared’s mouth open to let Jensen in. They made out like that, almost lazy, rubbing their cocks together, and Jeff reached in between them, wrapped his hand around the both of them, got it slick with their pre-come. He moved his hand back behind Jensen and rubbed his finger in circles over Jensen’s opening, making it slick, dipping a finger in then pulling it out. Jared’s hand was resting on Jensen’s thigh, and Jeff was struck again how big his hands were, how much growing the kid probably had left in him. Jeff grabbed Jared’s wrist and pulled his hand around behind Jensen. He got Jared’s and his own fingers slick with the lube Jensen had tossed on the coffee table earlier, and coaxed Jared to work his fingers into Jensen’s body. Jared worked two fingers in, and Jeff slipped two of his own in beside them,  both of them working together to stretch the muscle. Jensen moaned and squirmed and buried his head in Jared’s neck as he pushed his hips back onto their fingers, his body begging for more. Jeff slipped his fingers out and reached between Jensen’s legs to where Jared’s cock was hard and slick and rubbing against Jensen’s balls, and he stroked Jared’s cock with light fingers until the boy was shivering and humping against Jensen, so ready to go he could barely focus on Jeff’s face. Jared’s hand between Jensen’s legs, the fingers in his asshole, had gone slack. Jeff chuckled, leaned in close and kissed the knob of Jensen’s shoulder blade, then he pulled his boy off of Jared, manhandled him to the ground, put him on his hands and knees.

 

“Stay like that,” Jeff said. “Like a good boy. I’m gonna let Jared feed you that huge cock of his right in your tight little asshole.”

 

“Please,” Jensen said. “Jared, please.”

 

Jared was already kneeling beside them, and Jeff slid around to where Jensen’s head had dipped to the ground, his face buried in his arms. He cradled Jensen’s face in his hands as he watched Jared roll a condom on, then he made Jensen look at him, watched as Jensen grimaced at first  when Jared pushed into him, then as his face went slack with pleasure, his mouth open, his eyes hooded, his face flushed beneath the traces of come Jeff had missed. When Jared started to fuck in earnest, pushing Jensen across the floor, Jeff held his boy steady, let Jensen wrap his arms around Jeff, moan and curse and cry out with his face pressed to Jeff’s chest. When Jared finally came, his hips stuttering, Jeff pulled Jensen off his cock before Jared could even get a breath, turned Jensen roughly until he was in Jeff’s lap, tugged at Jensen’s cock _one two three_ times until Jensen was coming, shooting all over his stomach, covered in his own come. Jeff would kill to see Jared’s come dripping from his asshole.

 

Jared looked wrecked. He was leaning against the couch, his cock still half hard but going down, his chest red, strands of hair stuck to his forehead with sweat, his mouth bright red from kissing Jensen for so long earlier, and Jeff’s neglected cock wept at the sight.

 

“Jesus, kid,” he said. He pressed his lips to Jensen’s hair, smacked him on the ass. “Go to the bedroom,” he said.

 

Jensen grumped. “Bossy old man,” he said, but he did what he was told.

 

Jeff watched Jared watch him walk away.

 

“You want him,” Jeff said.

 

“Just had him,” Jared said.

 

“Don’t get cocky, kid,” Jeff said.

 

“Oh,” Jared said. “We’re having, like, a serious conversation? I don’t know if my brain can handle that right now.”

 

“I don’t know if this is a serious conversation or not.”

 

“What do you want, Jeff? You regret letting me fuck your boy?”

 

“I want you on your hands and knees on my bed, hanging off my cock.”

 

“Oh,” Jared said.

 

“Yeah.”

 

Jeff stood, took the kid’s hand to help him up. He followed him into the bedroom where Jensen was waiting for them. He stood next to the bed, his hair in sweaty spikes; he was scratching idly at the come drying on his belly, his cock hanging soft between his legs. He tossed a tube of lube and a condom onto the bed.

 

“You ready kid?” Jensen said. “You think I was good the other night? Wait until you’ve had Jeff. I’ve never been fucked so good as he fucks me.”

 

Jensen moved to the bed and sat against the pillows at the head. He reached a hand out and beckoned Jared forward, and Jared went, crawled onto the bed all long limbs and a little graceless. Jensen pushed Jared’s hair from his face, tucked it behind his ear, and Jared ducked his head, kissed the inside of Jensen’s wrist.

 

The sight of that, such a weirdly intimate exchange between them, fucked with Jeff’s head. He didn’t know if he was furious or turned on, but he pushed his pants down his legs, rolled on the condom and slicked up his cock, and shoved his fingers into Jared rough enough to have the kid crying out and gripping the sheets, his knuckles whitened.

 

“It’s okay,” Jensen said to him. He gave Jeff a look, and Jeff tried to calm down, be a little more gentle with the kid. He worked Jared open slowly, had his asshole slick and shining and stretched, and he was buried four fingers in when Jensen said, “Tell him what you want.”

 

“Fuck me,” Jared said. “Please. God. Fuck me. I want…” he lost control of his words. “I want I want, please, just, please.”

 

Jeff smoothed a hand over the kid’s hip and down his thigh, slicked a little more lube over his cock, then he pushed inside Jared. The kid moaned long and low when Jeff fit himself inside of him. Jeff reached his hand around to the kid’s cock, which was hard again (Jesus, Jeff thought, to be eighteen again…), and stroked him in time to his thrusts. He fucked into Jared hard until Jared had to brace himself against the headboard and against Jensen, and when Jared finally came, his ass contracting around Jeff’s cock tipped Jeff over the edge. He came with a shout, then he stayed where he was for a minute until he was soft enough to slip out. When he did, Jared collapsed on his belly, and Jensen smiled up at Jeff.

 

When everyone had caught their breath, Jensen got off the bed and disappeared into the bathroom connected to their bedroom.

 

“Jesus,” Jeff said. “I need a cigarette after that.”

 

“No way, old man!” Jensen shouted.

 

He walked back into the bedroom, naked, his gait a little hitched, and when he looked at Jared, who was passed out and sprawled on his belly on Jensen’s side of the bed, he laughed and tossed the wet rag he was holding so it landed _thwack_ , warm and steaming on Jeff’s chest. Jensen crawled onto the bed.

 

“This kid,” he said. He shook his head. “Does he always sleep after sex?”

 

“Looks like it,” Jeff said. “Looks like he could sleep through a monsoon, too.”

 

Jensen laughed and wiggled his way in between Jeff and Jared. He shook Jared awake. Jared lifted his head and blinked at them.

 

“Time to go?” Jared mumbled, the words muzzy and slurred with sleep. He rubbed at his eyes with his knuckles.

 

“Nah, Jay,” Jensen said, his voice soft. “Just gonna clean you up a bit.” He showed Jared the rag, then he smirked. “I’d do it with my tongue, but you look like you’ve had enough for now.”

 

Jeff laughed at the way Jared perked up at Jensen’s words. He went up to his elbows so he could watch Jensen wiping the boy’s thighs and in between his legs, the touch a little more gentle than he’d likely use on Jeff.

 

Jared looked back over his shoulder. “You’re kind of kinky, huh Dr. Ackles?”

 

Jensen snorted a laugh, threw the cloth to the floor, then moved up the bed and pressed himself to Jeff’s side. Jeff had pulled himself up to a sit, and Jensen rested his head against Jeff’s stomach.

 

“You have no idea, kid,” Jeff said to Jared.

 

Jeff touched his fingers to his lips. He always wanted a smoke after he fucked, which sucked because he and Jensen spent a lot of their time fucking. He sighed, dropped his hand to card it through the sweaty spikes of Jensen’s hair. Jared was watching them carefully, not a trace of the sleepiness that had been there only minutes before left on his face.

 

“How are you, Jared,” Jeff said. “You doing okay?”

 

“Yeah,” Jared said. He sat up and moved into a cross legged sit so that he was facing Jeff and Jensen. His thigh was pressed to Jensen’s, and Jensen shifted a little to make room, though he didn’t try to dodge the contact. He was watching Jared with eyes half-lidded.

 

“I thought for sure you’d kick me out,” Jared said. “I’m guessing that’s what you usually do?”

 

“Usually,” Jensen said, non-committal. The word revealed nothing and everything.

 

“What about you, Jared?” Jeff said.

 

“What _about_ me?” Jared said.

 

“What do you do when you aren’t tormenting Jensen’s logic class or teasing old men in bars?”

 

Jared grinned; he plucked at the sheets that were bunched up between his legs and shook the hair out of his eyes. “I work at the Starbucks on campus, too.”

 

“Do you now?” Jeff said. He glanced down at Jensen who looked lazy and unconcerned. “Jen’s a regular there.”

 

“Yeah,” Jared said. He looked a little embarrassed, the corner of his mouth crooking to the side. “I saw him around a lot.” He looked at Jensen. “I served you all first semester. That’s why I took your class. I, uh, I thought you were cute.”

 

Jensen snorted. “I ain’t cute, kid.”

 

“Yes you are,” Jared said. “With your sweater vests and your bowties. It’s like you’re just walking around waiting to be rumpled. It’s adorable.”

 

“Bowties are manly,” Jensen said. “Classic.”

 

“Dorky,” Jeff said.

 

Jensen pinched Jeff’s nipple, twisted it hard.

 

“Ow!” Jeff said. “Okay, okay. By dorky I mean sexy.”

 

“Obviously,” Jared said.

 

“It’s…geek chic ,” Jeff said.

 

Jensen groaned and rolled his eyes. “Do me a favor and never say ‘geek chic ’ again, okay?”

 

“You got it, sweetheart.”

 

“Do you guys, uh, smoke at all?” Jared said.

 

Jeff perked up. “You have a cigarette?”

 

Jensen smacked him on the chest. “He means weed, old man.”

 

“Oh,” Jeff said, disappointed.

 

“I do,” Jensen said. “It makes Jeff paranoid, though.”

 

“It does,” Jeff agreed. “But you two go ahead.”

 

“Cool,” Jared said. “I’ve got it in my pocket.”

 

He started to get off the bed, but Jeff stopped him. “I got it, kid. I need to stretch, anyway.”

 

Jeff got up, pulled a pair of ratty sweatpants from their dresser. He slipped them on and made his way to the kitchen, the sound of Jensen and Jared talking following him out of the room. In the living room, Jeff separated Jared’s jeans from Jensen’s and dug around in the kid’s pockets, sifting through change and gum wrappers in one pocket, a wad of cash (probably tips from the bar) in his back pocket, until he found what he was looking for in the little pocket above the real pocket that Jeff always forgot existed. There was a little plastic baggy and a book of papers. Jeff slipped them into his sweatpants pocket, folded Jared’s jeans, then Jensen’s, and put them both on the couch before making his way to the kitchen to get some water and dig up a snack.

 

He thought about how normal this all felt, how easy Jared fit, how he had no desire to kick Jared to the curb. Usually by the time they finished fucking whoever they brought home, he was itching to get them out of his bed and out of his house, so much so he was pretty sure there was more than one twink in St. Louis who thought Jeff Morgan was one grade A asshole. He couldn’t help it, though. He didn’t mind fucking someone else, but he wanted only Jensen in his bed. He couldn’t suss out why he didn’t feel the same way when it came to Jared. As he grabbed a couple of bottles of water out of the fridge and the bag of Gardettos from the cabinet (Jensen always wanted Gardettos when he was stoned), he let himself imagine it for a moment, what it would be like if he let this continue the way it was, how Jared would be here every weekend, how it would become more than just fucking, how Jared would study while he and Jensen graded papers and planned their classes, how Jared’s shoes would end up by the front door in a big, haphazard pile with his and Jensen’s, how he’d have breakfast with Jared while Jensen slept half his day buried in the covers and surrounded by their mingled scents.

 

In the bedroom, Jared and Jensen were deep in conversation, Jared sitting on his knees and making big gestures and Jensen laughing at whatever it was he was saying. When Jensen heard Jeff, he looked over Jared’s shoulder, and the smile on his face grew even warmer, his eyes crinkling in the corners. Jared looked and smiled, too, then he flopped over onto his back beside Jensen who held out his hand.

 

“Come here, old man,” Jensen said.

 

Jeff went.

 

***

 

No matter how good that weekend was, Jeff still wasn’t expecting what happened next. When Jared left Saturday afternoon for work, there was this weird feeling, this heaviness in the air. Jensen disappeared into his work, and Jeff couldn’t concentrate, so he sat on the couch watching old Sylvester Stalone movies until he felt as if his brain had melted out through his ears. Something was off. There had never been this tension after a fuck.

 

Monday morning, Jensen seemed anxious.

 

“I love you. You know that, right?” Jensen said.

 

He stood in their bedroom doorway while Jeff dressed for the day, tugging a black sweater over his head. It caught in the leather and metal bands around his wrists, and he used the distraction to avoid the rising feeling of panic in his chest. He tugged at the sleeves until they were pushed up to just beneath his elbows, the tattoo on his forearm hinting from beneath the cuff. He looked at Jensen, finally. He rubbed at his beard.

 

“Uh oh,” he said before he could stop himself. He’d meant to say _I love you, too_.

 

“’Uh oh’?” Jensen said. He gave Jeff a confused little smile. “Why’s that an ‘uh oh’? That’s a good thing.”

 

“Yeah, it is,” Jeff said. “But I can count on one hand the number of times you’ve actually said that to me.”

 

Jensen scratched at his stomach and ducked his head a bit. He looked guilty. He looked like he was trying to work up the courage to tell Jeff something, which just made Jeff’s heart flutter even more.

 

“Well, it’s true,” Jensen said. “And I should say it more often.”

 

“Okay,” Jeff said. “Where’s this coming from, Jen?” He sat in the little armchair in the corner of their room, the cracked leather squeaking when he shifted his weight.

 

“I want Jared,” Jensen said. He said it quick. _Like pulling off a Band-Aid_ , Jeff thought.

 

When Jeff answered, he very carefully kept emotion from his voice. “Yeah,” he said. “It was fun this weekend.”

 

“No,” Jensen said. “It’s not just that, not just the fucking. If it were just that, then I’d just ask you if we could fuck him again then I’d forget about him.”

 

“So what are you saying?” Jeff said. _He’s found someone better. He’s going to fly on his own, now_. “Are you leaving?”

 

“No,” Jensen said. “No, I couldn’t. Jeff, _I love you_ , man, and I’m not fucking around when I say that. I could never leave you.”

 

“But you want Jared.”

 

“I want me, and you, _and_ Jared.”

 

“You want an open relationship?” Jeff’s voice sounded rough to his own ears.

 

Jensen just shook his head. “I want…I want _us_ and him. I want it to be, like, a regular thing. I want us to date him.”

 

“Date him.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

Jeff laughed, no humor in it. “What the fuck does that mean?”

 

“It means…Don’t you like him at all? I mean, I think the three of us—”

 

“I like him just fine, but that’s not the point. The point is, you want you and me and him, and I know what that leads to, Jen; that leads to you and him and me out on my ass. You wanna dump me, just go ahead and fucking do it.”

 

“No.”

 

Jensen crossed the room and dropped to his knees in front of Jeff, looked up at him, his eyes very wide, and very green, and very worried. He was pale, his freckles stark. He looked so young in that moment. Sometimes Jeff forgot that Jensen was only twenty-nine. Still so goddamned young; he actually believed this could work, that two could become three without at least one of them getting hurt.

 

“That’s not what this is,” Jensen said. “This isn’t me beating around the bush, man. I’m not trying to have the best of both worlds. This is me being as honest as I possibly can be because I love you and I think you deserve it. And if you don’t like what I have to say, then we can just forget I ever said it. But I like him. I don’t want to leave you for him, and I don’t want to fuck him on the side without your blessing or even with it. I want me and you and him. I want the three of us. I think…I think maybe he could be a good addition. Maybe he could be a part of us.”

 

“And if I say no?” Jeff said. “If I say I don’t want that.”

 

A flicker of disappointment crossed Jensen’s face, but he masked it almost immediately. “Then that’s it. Subject closed. I won’t bring it up again.”

 

Jeff ran a hand through his boy’s hair, watched as Jensen tilted into the touch. Jensen’s hands on Jeff’s thighs tightened just slightly. “How long until you resent me?” Jeff said. “If I say no, then you see Jared all the time in class and on campus, and you still want him…how long before you start resenting me, and what’s going to happen once the resentment starts?”

 

Jensen’s face fell. He looked wretched all of a sudden, as if whatever Jeff said had hurt him far worse than anything he’d ever said before. “I wouldn’t do that,” he said, his voice quiet. “I’m not trying to force you into anything. I don’t…I _love_ you. I mean, you’re it for me, man.”

 

“Oh yeah? Because right now you’re telling me that maybe I’m not enough.”

 

Jensen stood. He backed away a few steps. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Jesus, this was a terrible idea.” He ran both hands through his hair. “Please just…just forget I said anything.”

 

He started to walk away.

 

“Jen?” Jeff said. “Hey, where are you going?”

 

“I have to be at office hours in thirty minutes. I’ll take my own car.”

 

“Jensen,” Jeff said.

 

He looked up at Jeff, smiled, and Jeff wondered how forced that smile was.

 

“I’ll see you on campus, okay?” Jensen said.

 

“Yeah,” Jeff said. “Okay, sweetheart.”

 

 

 

Part II

 

_Jared_

 

Jared raised his hand to knock on the door, curled it into a fist, then dropped it by his side. He had absolutely no fucking clue what he was doing here. He hadn’t even told Chad or Gen he’d planned this. He _hadn’t_ planned this. If he’d given it any thought at all, he’d know how stupid it was that he was standing on this front porch. He would know that what he thought he felt was probably only a passing thing, not even real at all.

 

The weekend before, Chad had tried to take Jared’s mind off of Jensen and Jeff. They’d gone to the Grove and danced, and Jared could have had his pick of guys. He spent most of the night with an art student with a stud in his tongue and one in his cock (if the dirty words he’d whispered in Jared’s ear were to be believed). They’d danced close enough that Jared knew the size of him without needing to get his pants off. Jared was so turned on by the end of the night he’d felt crazy with it, and he’d stumbled out of the club with the boy; they’d been laughing about nothing important, and the boy had turned sideways and smiled, and in the halflight, the line of his nose had been wrong, his chin too delicate, he’d had no freckles, no rough beard. Jared didn’t want him, not in the way that mattered.

 

Jared turned away from the door and sat on the front porch step. Jensen and Jeff’s house was nice; it was tucked away in a little neighborhood back behind the school in University City. The street was tree-lined, everything green with bursts of color here and there; it was spring, almost May, almost the end of the semester; the flowers were blooming in the landscaping lining the perfectly cut lawns.

 

Jared really had no fucking clue what he was doing here.

 

“You selling something, kid?”

 

Jared turned to see Jeff in the doorway. He put on a grin he wasn’t sure he really felt. He stood.

 

“Why?” he said. “Are you buying, old man?”

 

“Depends on the goods.” Jeff raked his eyes over Jared, head to toe. “Looks like it’d be worth the cash.”

 

“Damn straight,” Jared said.

 

Jeff’s smile softened, became less of a leer and more genuine. “What’s up?” he said. “Why’re you hanging out on my porch?”

 

“I really don’t know why I’m here,” Jared said. He shrugged as if to emphasize the truth of his words, or maybe to make them seem less pitiful, more nonchalant. He really just _didn’t fucking know_ , okay?

 

“Wanna come in?” Jeff said.

 

 _Oh god yes_ , Jared thought, though what he said was, “Yeah,” and he followed Jeff into the house, through the living room where Jensen had given him the best blowjob of his life a little over a month ago, and into the kitchen.

 

Jeff cracked open the fridge and tossed Jared a can of soda.

 

“Sorry,” Jeff said when Jared looked at the can in his hand. “All I have is the diet crap. Jensen likes it.

 

Jared laughed a little. Jensen seemed the type: a bit hipsterish, a lot caffeine addicted. “He’s a man who likes his caffeine,” Jared said.

 

“That he is,” Jeff agreed.

 

“Can I sit?” Jared said.

 

Jeff hooked a chair out from under the little kitchen dining set with his foot and pushed it toward Jared. “Go for it,” he said.

 

They both sat.

 

 _This isn’t awkward at all_ , Jared thought.

 

“So,” he said.

 

“So,” Jeff said.

 

Jared laughed and brushed his hair out of his eyes with his hands. He’d spent more nights than he could count the past month jerking off to the thought of this man’s hands on his skin, his fat cock inside of him. Jeff was just…he was fucking sexy, is what he was. There was just something about him. He looked like he’d be just as at home on a Harley as he was in his classroom; he had these big, rough, square hands, strong forearms, tattoos here and there, one peeking out from beneath his sleeve. He was broad-shouldered and lean; he was gruff, but when he laughed, he laughed like a child, giddy and careless, his whole body getting in on the act.

 

“Kid,” Jeff said. “Not that you ain’t easy on the eyes, but I wasn’t exactly expecting to see you today.”

 

“I know,” Jared said. “Apparently you weren’t ever really planning to see me again. Today or any day.”

 

The words were more bitter than Jared had intended, but it had been a month since he’d been here, a very lonely month in which Jensen had completely shut him out. Their interactions were entirely formal; it was all “Mr. Padalecki, what can I do for you?” in that ridiculously sexy voice of his with that adorable blush spreading across his cheeks that said he could  pretend nothing had changed between them but he couldn’t really hide it. Not really.

 

“You knew the rules going in,” Jeff said. “I was upfront with you.”

 

“I know,” Jared said. “But I guess…I mean, you can’t honestly tell me it wasn’t different. I stayed all day Saturday. We hung out.”

 

“You want a medal?” Jeff said.

 

Jared flinched. He looked at the table; he would have left if he weren’t afraid he’d die of embarrassment in the middle of Jeff’s kitchen if he moved.

 

“Shit,” Jeff said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be cruel. It _was_ different with you, kid, but what do you want me to do about it? Jensen and I are partners.”

 

“I know that,” Jared said. “But I could be your friend, you know? I just don’t understand why you cut me out.”

 

“Jared—“

 

“I know what I sound like, okay? I know I sound like some stupid kid. I hate that I sound that way right now.”

 

“You shouldn’t. You _are_ a kid.”

 

“I’m an adult,” Jared said. “At least, you seemed to think so when you were sticking your cock in my ass.”

 

Jeff held his hands up as if in surrender. “Fair enough,” he said. “But that’s not exactly what I mean.” He sighed. “Christ. You’re eighteen, Jared. At eighteen, you don’t…you _can’t_ realize how the decisions you make will affect you later on. To you, this is just a bit of fun. You hang out with me and Jen, maybe we fuck, maybe we don’t, but eventually you’re gonna get tired of two old men and you’re gonna meet someone new and you’re gonna leave. And for you? That’s great. But me and Jensen will be left to pick up the pieces. I’ve got a family here I have to worry about, that I have to protect. What am I gonna do with Jensen when you leave and break his heart, huh?”

 

“How do you know I’m gonna leave?”

 

“I really don’t know that that’s any better.”

 

“That doesn’t make sense,” Jared said. “So it’s damned if you don’t, damned if you do, huh? You can’t just live it for a little while and see what happens.”

 

“Why are you fighting so hard for this?” Jeff said. “We can’t be that good in the sack. You’re a handsome young man. You could go find a boyfriend or a fuck buddy if that’s what you want.”

 

“And why can’t you and Jensen be my boyfriends?”

 

Jeff laughed, a harsh barking sound. “You sound like Jensen.”

 

“He wants that, too?”

 

“Can’t you tell?”

 

“He won’t even look at me unless I have a question about class.”

 

“Yeah, well,” Jeff said, his lips twisting in an embarrassed kind of smile. “That’s probably my fault. I didn’t react all that well when he suggested we date you.”

 

“You don’t want to date me?” Jared said. He could sense he was winning. He gave his best puppy eyes, looking up from beneath his bangs.

 

“I don’t know how that works. Hell, me and Jen didn’t even date. How do two people date a third?”

 

Jared shrugged. “You’re smart. You’ll figure it out.”

 

***

 

Jeff invited Jared to stay for dinner, and Jared agreed. He had to work that night, but he called in sick. He didn’t want to miss this opportunity; he felt as if whatever Jeff was agreeing to was still tentative; Jared could blink and this could disappear. He didn’t know exactly why he didn’t want that to happen, but he knew he didn’t, and he was starting to realize that he’d fight to have a place here with Jeff and Jensen no matter how hard the fighting was.

 

Jared sat at Jeff’s kitchen table and watched him search the refrigerator for something to cook.

 

“You didn’t have class today?” Jared said.

 

“I teach night class on Wednesday.”

 

“What’s the class?”

 

“It’s a Masters class on Hegel.”

 

“Wow,” Jared said. “That sounds…”

 

“Boring?” Jeff said. He laughed, threw Jared a grin over his shoulder as he laid ingredients out on the counter.

 

“I was going to say intense.”

 

Jeff shrugged. “It can be. Especially with the kids working their way toward a PhD. They all think they have something to prove, so the class sometimes turns into three hours of arguing.”

 

Jeff sat at the table across from Jared with a couple of tomatoes, avocados, and a red onion. “You cook, kid?” he said.

 

“Uh…”

 

“Can you slice a tomato?”

 

“Yeah,” Jared said. “That I can do.”

 

He got to work slicing. The knife bit into the tomato’s skin in a satisfying way, and the juice ran everywhere. Jared rarely cooked. He ate tomatoes and all because he pretty much lived on Taco Bell and whatever bar food he could take home after work, and there were usually tomatoes on his chalupa supreme, or on his burger. But this was better.

 

“You guys cook a lot?” Jared said. He wanted to ask Jeff about Hegel, but he’d never taken anything more from the Philosophy department than Jensen’s Logic class, and he was a little worried about embarrassing himself.

 

“Jen cooks,” Jeff said. “He’s pretty talented, actually. I’m okay, but if he’s around to cook, I mostly leave it to him.”

 

Jared nodded and tried to imagine Dr. Ackles with a knife in his hand or with his hands buried in bread dough. It was a pleasing picture. He was probably more casual at home, like he’d been before they’d fucked. He’d probably be barefoot, in jeans and a t-shirt, his glasses sliding down his nose.

 

Jared shifted in his seat, suddenly turned on. _Change the subject_. “What are we making?” he said.

 

“You’re slicing tomatoes for grilled cheese a la Jeff.”

 

“Oh yeah?” Jared said. Jeff was grinning at him crookedly and smashing avocado in a big bowl with a fork. “What’s grilled cheese a la Jeff?”

 

“Grilled cheese with tomato and bacon.”

 

“Of course,” Jared said.

 

“And I’m making guacamole. It’s Jen’s favorite. If I let him, he’d probably sit on the couch after I left and eat the whole bowl while he watched _True Grit_. Kid’s a lazy-ass when I’m not around to crack the whip.”

 

“Sounds like my kind of night,” Jared said.

 

“The movie or the whip?” Jeff said. He leered, and Jared coughed and turned away. He’d already been uncomfortable, but now his cock was straining his jeans.

 

“Sorry,” Jeff said, but he didn’t really sound like he meant it.

 

Jeff stood and grabbed the cutting board with the tomatoes and he went to work at the counter assembling sandwiches.

 

Jared heard the front door open, and he sat a little straighter.

 

“In the kitchen, Jen,” Jeff yelled.

 

“Jesus fuck, Jeff, those fucking kids, man, they’re gonna be the fucking death of me.” Jensen’s voice carried into the kitchen along with other sounds of him settling into the house—dropping car keys on the entry table, sliding shoes off and leaving them next to the door. “This one kid came to my office today. He hasn’t turned in a goddamned thing all semester and now he wants extra credit, like I’m just gonna—”

 

Jensen froze in the doorway to the kitchen when he saw Jared. He visibly tensed, his shoulders tightening, the corners of his mouth turning down.

 

“Hey Dr. Ackles,” Jared said.

 

“We got company, sweetheart,” Jeff said. “And I’m making grilled cheese.”

 

Jensen nodded, loosened his bow tie, then turned around and walked away.

 

“Fuck,” Jeff said.

 

“Is everything okay?” Jared said. “Should I…?” _What, Jared? Leave? Now you know damn well you aren’t gonna do that, not unless they kick you out_.

 

“It’s fine, kid,” Jeff said. “I’ll just be right back.”

 

Jeff disappeared after Jensen.

 

For a few minutes, everything was silent except for the sizzle of the sandwiches on the stove. Jared scuffed his shoe on the floor, then he stood, poked at the sandwiches with the spatula wondering if he should turn them. Then he heard the sounds of a muffled argument. Jeff and Jensen were obviously fighting, and Jared couldn’t make out the words, but it didn’t take a genius to know they were arguing about him. Jared just couldn’t figure out _why_ they were arguing about him since both of them seemed to want the same thing. He poked the sandwiches harder and wondered absently if Jensen thought Jared and Jeff had fucked before Jensen got home. He fantasized a little about walking to their bedroom and getting on his knees, letting them fuck his throat to work out their aggression. And thank you, all those years of porn, for giving Jared such a vivid imagination. He adjusted himself in his jeans. He bit the bullet and flipped one of the sandwiches and was oddly pleased with himself when it didn’t fall apart, and the bread was the perfect shade of golden brown on the up side.

 

Jeff and Jensen reappeared as Jared was sliding the sandwiches onto a plate Jeff had laid out next to the stove. Jared stood next to the stove with the spatula in his hand and felt awkward. Jensen was looking anywhere but at him, and Jeff had a big, fake grin on his face.

 

“Glad to see you didn’t burn everything down while we were gone, kid,” Jeff said.

 

Jensen tossed paper plates and napkins on the table, opened a bag of tortilla chips and dumped them in a bowl.

 

“We’re going to need an extra chair,” he said. He stared hard at Jeff. He looked extremely unhappy. His collar was open, though, where he’d removed his tie, and Jared couldn’t help but stare at the pale skin in the hollow of Jensen’s throat. Jensen sensed him looking and reached up and tugged his collar straight.

 

“I’ll grab one of the desk chairs,” Jeff said. He put the plate of sandwiches on the table and disappeared.

 

“What are you doing here?” Jensen said.

 

“Um, staying for dinner?” Jared tried to smile.

 

“This is inappropriate.”

 

“And it wasn’t the other times I’ve been here?” Jared was starting to feel a little angry now. He didn’t know why Jensen had a bug up his ass, but Jared was pretty sure Jensen was just as much to blame for Jared’s standing in the kitchen as Jared himself was.

 

“That was different,” Jensen said. He sat and straightened his utensils.

 

“How?” Jared said.

 

“You were invited then,” Jensen said, and he finally looked at Jared, the glance withering, and Jared felt like one of the kids in his Logic class that always got ‘D’s on everything and got that glance from Jensen as he was handing back the tests.

 

Jeff came in then, carrying a chair beat up red leather desk chair. He set it down and Jared sat,  right in between Jensen and Jeff, right where he’d wanted to be whenever he’d let himself think of it this past month. But nothing had prepared him for just how awkward the reality would be.

 

Jensen was staring down at his food, spearing guacamole with chips and leaving them sticking brokenly up from the pile of it. Jeff was watching Jensen closely, a thoughtful look on his face, and Jared just stuffed sandwich into his mouth because this may have been awkward, but the food was still good.

 

“What’s your major, kid?” Jeff asked finally.

 

“I don’t really know yet.”

 

“You’ll figure it out,” Jeff said.

 

“I mean, I want to be a massage therapist,” he said. He felt a little embarrassed with the admission. He didn’t often say that to people because for some reason people seemed to think it wasn’t really a worthwhile profession. His parents didn’t think so, anyway. “I’ve taken a few classes, but the school doesn’t really have a program.”

 

“Why are you in a four year program, then?” Jensen said. He looked interested despite himself.

 

“Jensen,” Jeff said. “Don’t be an asshole.”

 

“No, I’m not,” Jensen said. “I didn’t mean it to sound like that. I just mean that you can’t really get what you need for that from a four year school, right?”

 

“No,” Jared said. “There are specialized schools for it, but my parents were pretty set on me going to a four-year school.”

 

“They paying for it?” Jensen said.

 

“Jesus, Jen,” Jeff said.

 

Jensen shrugged. “Sorry.”

 

“No,” Jared said. “They aren’t. They were, but they cut me off when they found out I’m gay and don’t have any intention to change.”

 

Jared stared at his food, suddenly uninterested. What was he doing here? He should just stand up right now, walk out while he still had a little dignity left. Chad had tried to warn him that he could never fit in here, that these two weren’t out for anything but a quick fuck. Jared didn’t know why he hadn’t listened.

 

“I’m sorry,” Jensen said.

 

Jared shrugged.

 

“No,” Jensen said. “Really. I am. I shouldn’t have assumed. Parents can really be assholes sometimes.” Jensen looked at Jeff like there was some kind of back story there, but no one pressed the issue.

 

Jared shrugged. “Yeah, well, when you grow up in a small town in Texas, it’s pretty much football, God, and girls. Unfortunately I didn’t like any of those things.”

 

“I hear that,” Jensen said.

 

“Jen’s from Texas, too,” Jeff said.

 

“Yeah?” Jared looked at Jensen. Jensen still didn’t look happy that Jared was here, but he looked a little more relaxed, the downward turn of his lips more thoughtful than angry. “You, um, you know what it was like then?”

 

Jensen sighed a little, ate some chip and dip, looked a little like he’d just fallen in love with what he put in his mouth, and made yummy noises and moon eyes at Jeff who kicked him under the table and gestured at Jared.

 

“Oh,” Jensen said. “Um, yeah. I mean, my parents didn’t cut me off. But I talk to them, I don’t know, maybe once a year? Mom calls every Easter. I could set the calendar by it.” He ate another chip.

 

“It sucks,” Jared said.

 

“Yeah,” Jensen said. “It never gets better, but you get used to it. And you find your own family.”

 

Jensen looked at Jeff, his face brightening with a quiet smile that Jeff returned. Jared felt a tingle in his chest and looked down at his food.

 

“Must be nice,” he said.

 

Jared knew his voice sounded off, and Jensen turned to look at him. He pushed the plate of sandwiches toward Jared. “Eat up, Jay,” he said.

 

Jeff pushed his chair back and stood, breaking the tension. “I gotta go. Sorry to run out.”

 

“Wait,” Jensen stood. He followed Jeff and backed him into the counter. “You’re just gonna leave?”

 

“Yeah. I’ve got class. Try to play nice.”

 

“Why are you doing this?” Jensen said.

 

“Jen…it’s not a big deal, okay?”

 

“It is. It _is_ a big deal.”

 

“I trust you.” He pushed Jensen away a little and Jensen looked forlorn. “Now,” Jeff said. “I’m sure the two of you can find something more fun to do than eat all the guacamole.”

 

“Are you sure about this?” Jensen said. He was wringing his hands together.

 

“Yeah, sweetheart,” he kissed Jensen on the lips then smiled at him. “Just save some for me.”

 

Jeff left and there were a few moments of silence, during which Jensen stood in the middle of the kitchen looking very unsure.

 

“He just gave me permission to fuck you,” Jensen said finally. He slumped into his chair and looked at Jared. “What am I supposed to do here?”

 

“I would say it’s pretty obvious, but it doesn’t seem like that’s what you want to hear,” Jared said.

 

Jensen laughed, the sound harsh and loud. He dragged his hand down his face, across his lips, over his chin where he lingered and rubbed at his stubble. “That’s not gonna happen,” he said finally.

 

Jensen stood and moved to the sink, turned on the water and started distractedly doing the dishes.

 

“Why not?” Jared said.

 

“Jesus,” Jensen said.

 

“No really. I’m trying to understand here. It seems like both of you want me, I know I want both of you, and Jeff doesn’t seem to mind if we…you know, while he’s gone.”

 

“Oh, he minds. Believe me.” Jensen turned to face him now and leaned against the counter, his hands gripping the edge.

 

“Doesn’t seem like it,” Jared said.

 

Jared stood, and Jensen watched him warily as Jared moved forward, his movements slow, his hands raised a little, trying to show Jensen he wasn’t a threat. He was terrified all of a sudden that this wouldn’t work. He wanted this bad enough he could feel it, deep in his bones, an ache that wouldn’t abate until he had what he wanted. But it was a delicate thing. If he played this too clumsy, it would break. _I don’t do this now_ , Jared thought, _and that’s it. It’s not gonna happen._

 

When he got close to Jensen, Jensen jerked a little and looked away as if he could avoid the whole situation if he just didn’t look Jared in the face. Jared reached out and rested his hand on Jensen’s stomach, felt the muscles twitch and jump beneath his hand.

 

“Dr. Ackles,” Jared said. He closed his eyes to try to gain strength, then opened them again. “Jensen. Look at me.”

 

Jensen only turned his face away even further. Jared could see the muscle at his jaw tick, and he took a chance. He leaned in and pressed is lips to Jensen’s jaw line, to the warm, stubbled skin, to where Jensen’s pulse jumped. He put his hand to Jensen’s face, and Jensen leaned into the touch, baring his throat further, so Jared worked his way down Jensen’s neck, trailing wet kisses along the jugular until he worked his way to the front, to the hollow of Jensen’s throat. Jensen had his hand resting lightly on the crown of Jared’s head now as if to encourage him, but Jared was still all too aware of the ways this could go wrong. He took a deep, shaky breath against Jensen’s skin, then he moved down Jensen’s body until he was on his knees on the kitchen floor. Jared looked up the length of Jensen’s body and saw that Jensen was watching him, that his guarded expression was beginning to fail him; his pupils were lust blown, his lips wet; as Jared watched, he sucked his bottom lip into his mouth then let it go, and Jared wanted to kiss him there. He wanted to taste Jensen’s cock and then share the taste with him.

 

“Can I suck you?” Jared asked. “Please?”

 

“No.”

 

“Please?” Jared said. He nuzzled against Jensen’s cock through his jeans, rubbed his nose there, pressed his lips to the denim and opened his mouth as if he were already suckling the warm flesh beneath. “Please,” he said again. “I could suck you to hold us both over, then when Jeff gets back…when he gets back, he could fuck us both. You could get me ready for him, could work me open, get me nice and loose and slick, keep me on edge until he gets here.” Jared was working Jensen’s fly open now, and Jensen had one hand tangled in Jared’s hair, holding him close. “Don’t you want that, Dr. Ackles?” Jared had Jensen’s cock in front of him now, hard, flushed, pearling pre-come at the head and curving slightly toward his stomach. He rubbed his cheek along the length of it. “I could be good. I could be…it will be fun.”

 

“Shut up,” Jensen said.

 

The words sounded pained, broken. He steered Jared by his hair until the head of his cock was smearing across Jared’s lips and Jared opened up, took the head in his mouth, teased it with his tongue, pressed his tongue into the slit to taste Jensen’s come, to savor the bitterness of it. When Jensen got impatient, he fucked his way into Jared’s mouth, and Jared let him, put his hands on his own thighs and tilted his head back, used his tongue and cheeks to provide the right pressure as Jensen fucked his face. Jared had always been good at this, had always liked it, too, ever since the first time he’d tried it when he was a freshman in high school and had let the senior quarterback shove his cock down Jared’s throat in the locker room after Jared’s first track meet. Jared had gagged then, and though he’d tried his hardest, he hadn’t been able to take it. When the jock had come in his mouth, Jared had pulled away gasping and coughing; he’d had drool and snot all over his face, and his eyes had been streaming. He’d had a sore throat for a week. There had been a thrill in it, though, that Jared had never found in anything else. He’d jerked off to that moment all through high school. Even as he gained experience, it was still that first blow job that could get him hotter than anything. He’d tried to talk boyfriends into fucking his face, but they never seemed comfortable with it. Jensen, though, didn’t seem to have any problem at all. He fed his cock into Jared’s throat like he knew Jared was dying for it, held Jared still with a strong grip in his hair so Jared couldn’t pull away. When he came, he was buried deep inside Jared, left his come so deep Jared couldn’t even taste it, then he pulled out of Jared and left a slick of pre-come and drool in his wake.

 

Jared gasped for breath and Jensen fell to his knees in front of him, pulled Jared close and kissed him, sucked on his bottom lip a little before forcing Jared’s mouth open with his own. Jared practically melted into it. When Jensen pulled away, Jared whined a little before he could stop himself. Jensen pressed their foreheads together.

 

“Jared,” Jensen said. “Jared. Do you have any fucking clue what you do to me?”

 

“Tell me,” Jared said.

 

“It’s insane.” Jensen shook his head slightly, laughed and sat back against the cabinets. He grinned at Jared. “Come here,” he said.

 

Jared scooted until he was sitting cross-legged beside Jensen, and Jensen turned so their knees were touching. He pressed his hand to Jared’s cock. “I think we need to do something about this,” he said as he dragged the zipper of Jared’s jeans downward and pulled his dick out of his pants.

 

Jared had been on edge for too long, and when Jensen first stroked his hand down the length of him, he thought for sure he would explode. His toes curled in his sneakers and he gripped Jensen’s knees.

 

“You like that, Jay?” Jensen said.

 

“Yeah. Yes.”

 

Jensen flicked his thumb against the glans, then circled it over the head.

 

“You want to hold it until Jeff gets home?” Jensen said.

 

“I don’t know if I can.” Jared was humping into Jensen’s hand now, desperate, but Jensen pulled his hand away.

 

Jared cried out and moved his hand to finish himself off, but Jensen grabbed him by the wrist and stopped him. When Jared gave him his best puppy eyes, Jensen just gave him a shit-eating grin back like he knew exactly what he was doing.

 

“Sorry, Jay,” Jensen said. “I’m a little bit of a brat in the sack. I know what I want, and I get what I want.”

 

“You’re an asshole,” Jared said.

 

Jensen cracked up, and it made him look boyish, his eyes crinkling in the corners. Jared reached out and grabbed him by the neck, pulled him in for another kiss. Then he bit Jensen hard on the lip and didn’t let go until Jensen shouted.

 

“I can be a brat, too,” Jared said.

 

“Aw, don’t be like that,” Jensen said. “Think about it.” He wrapped his hand around Jared’s cock again, just enough pressure to tease, but not enough to really get him off. “Think about how good it’ll feel when Jeff gets home and you’re all ready and waiting for him. I’ll keep you hard all night, then I’ll put you in my bed on your hands and knees, open you up nice and slow, and Jeff can come home to me rimming you while you beg for his fat, hard cock. Doesn’t that sound like fun?”

 

Jared closed his eyes and nodded. It was going to be a long night.

 

Jensen stood and finished the dishes while Jared tucked himself back into his jeans.

 

He stood. “I’m just…gonna go to the bathroom,” Jared said.

 

“No cheating,” Jensen said.

 

“Don’t worry, _teach_ ,” Jared said. “I can be good.”

 

“I bet you can,” Jensen said.

 

In the bathroom, Jared splashed cold water on his face and pushed his hair back from his forehead before willing his cock to settle down enough for him to piss. He pulled his cell phone out and saw he had three texts from Chad.

 

_Wr u at?_

 

_Did u do sumthin dum?_

 

_Douch nozl. U w/Akls agn?_

 

Jared sent a text back.

 

_I’m busy. Leave me the fuck alone._

 

Then he added, _Douche. Yeah, I’m w/Ackles. Don’t tell Gen. She’ll kick my ass._

 

About ten seconds later, Chad texted back. _She shud. Go get some pada bear. But i don’t wanna kno who bottomed._

 

 _Fuck you_ , Jared sent.

 

 _u luv me_ , Chad sent.

 

 _yeah, I do_ , Jared sent.

 

Jared made his way back to the kitchen where Jensen was rooting around in the fridge. He was bent over, his ass on display, and he was scratching at one socked foot with the other. When he stood and turned, two beers in his hand, his fingers gripping the necks of the bottles, Jared saw that he’d taken his button down off and was in just a t-shirt now.

 

“I like you like this,” Jared said before he could stop himself.

 

Jensen cocked an eyebrow.

 

Jared gestured at him. “You, when you’re casual like this. You’re so buttoned up in class.”

 

Jensen nodded and popped the top off one of the beers with a bottle opener and handed it to Jared. “Don’t tell Jeff,” he said.

 

Jared raised the beer to him. “I won’t.”

 

Jensen clinked their bottles together; Jared followed him into the living room.

 

“It’s a little trick I learned,” Jensen said. He sat on the couch and Jared sat beside him.

 

“What is?” Jared said.

 

“The buttoned up thing.” Jensen shrugged and turned to face Jared. They were sitting close, their knees touching. Jared could feel the heat of Jensen’s body, and his cock, which had never really settled down, gave a pleasant/unpleasant twitch in his pants. If Jensen noticed, he didn’t say. “When I first started teaching, I wasn’t much older than the students, so I started dressing as professional as possible to create some sort of a divide between us, I guess. Does it work?”

 

“Everyone pretty much thinks you’re adorable.”

 

Jensen snorted. “Great.”

 

“The girls all have crushes on you,” Jared said.

 

“And you,” Jensen said. “You have a crush on me, too.”

 

Jared smiled hard. “I _did_ ,” he said. “But I don’t need to have a crush anymore.”

 

“I guess not,” Jensen said. He grabbed a lock of Jared’s hair and tugged a little. He put his beer down on the coffee table and scooted closer, put his hand over Jared’s cock.

 

“What are you doing?” Jared said.

 

“I promised I’d keep you hard all night,” he said.

 

He worked Jared through his pants until Jared thought he was about to die, then he pulled away.

 

“Fuck,” Jared said. He tried to slow his breathing. “Fuck. You’re evil.”

 

“I am,” Jensen agreed. He leaned back against the arm of the couch and pulled his feet up. He tucked them beneath Jared’s thigh. “Tell me something, Jared.”

 

“Like what?”

 

“I don’t know. I don’t really know anything about you. I don’t like that.”

 

Jared turned a little so he was looking more fully at Jensen; he tried very hard to keep his leg covering Jensen’s feet at the same time. He didn’t think he’d ever felt so conscious of his body, of its size and awkwardness, of just how much he wanted it to please the man sitting next to him. _Man up, Padalecki_ , he thought. He reached out and put his hand on Jensen’s knee, the touch tentative. When Jensen didn’t object, Jared relaxed into it, brushed his thumb over the denim.

 

“Why St. Louis?” Jensen said. “Let’s start there. It’s a long way from Texas.”

 

“It is,” Jared said. “You chose St. Louis, too.”

“I stayed for Jeff,” Jensen said simply. “I would have gone back to Texas otherwise.”

 

“You miss it?”

 

“You’re evading my question,” Jensen said. He tilted his head to the side and studied Jared carefully. “If it’s a sore subject, we don’t have to talk about it.”

 

“No,” Jared said. “It’s not that. Wash U’s a good school, and they gave me a partial scholarship. But, I don’t know, St. Louis seemed like a big city, you know? But not too big like Chicago. Chicago’s a little intimidating after my hometown.”

 

“Was Chicago your other choice?”

 

“Anywhere was my other choice,” Jared said. He laughed a little, not quite sure what he was trying to say. “I just wanted to be somewhere where I could be myself.”

 

“Where you could be gay?”

 

“No,” Jared said. “No. That’s not all I am.”

 

“Of course not,” Jensen said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that it is.”

 

“To be honest,” Jared said. “I don’t know why St. Louis. I don’t know if it was the right decision at all.”

 

“Yeah,” Jensen said. “You never really do. No one does. That’s part of life, man. You make choices and just hope like fuck they turn out okay.”

 

“Like this?” Jared said. “Like making the choice to let me in?”

 

Jensen just shrugged. He wriggled his feet a little under Jared’s thigh.

 

“Can I kiss you again?” Jared said.

 

Jensen nodded. “You don’t have to ask, Jay.”

 

Jared turned and Jensen spread his legs, let Jared crawl between them and over his body until Jared was looking down at him. Jensen let him lead the kiss, let him use his hands to tilt Jensen’s head to just the right angle, kept his lips closed until Jared tongued them open. They made out like that for a while, spread out over the couch, just kissing and rubbing against each other. When it started to get heated, when Jared felt like he’d come in his jeans if he felt Jensen’s lips against his skin even one second longer, he pulled away, gasping for breath.

 

Jensen grinned up at him. “Good boy,” he said.

 

***

 

Jensen made good on his promise. When Jeff came home, Jensen had Jared on his hands and knees on the bed, his cock hard and weeping between his legs as Jensen did lewd things with his tongue and Jared’s balls and ass. By the time Jeff got home, Jensen was holding his fingers in a ring around the base of Jared’s cock and balls to keep him from coming. Jared didn’t think he’d ever been so turned on or so hard for so long before. He’d long lost the ability for coherent thought and, when Jeff pushed inside of him, he sobbed out a long breath and begged him to let him come. Jeff jerked Jared’s cock _one, two, three_ times and Jared was shooting, every muscle in his body tightening with the force of it. Then Jeff gathered Jared into his arms and fucked into him while Jared tried to gather his wits enough to participate. Jeff smoothed Jared’s hair back from his forehead, grumbled into his ear, “It’s okay, kid. I’ve got you.” He wrung a second orgasm out of Jared before coming himself. Jared completely lost track of Jensen in all of this, but when Jeff finished and Jared stretched out on the bed, it was Jensen who cleaned him up, and Jensen who tucked in next to Jared’s side so they could fall asleep together.

 

***

 

_Jensen_

 

Jensen woke to a warm, heavy blanket named Jared sprawled on top of him. Jensen was in the middle of the bed, Jeff was snoring on his back beside him, and Jared’s face was nuzzled into Jensen’s neck, warm breath puffing against his skin. Jensen couldn’t see the clock from where he was, but he knew it was before six a.m. The room was still filled with the blue light of early morning, the shades still drawn, and the alarm was quiet. Jensen hated being awake before six a.m.

 

He wriggled out from beneath Jared, trying not to wake him. Luckily, the kid slept like a log, and he only turned on his side and snuggled into the blankets when Jensen moved him. Jeff wasn’t so lucky, considering Jensen’s only way out of the bed was directly over the man. As Jensen tried to sneak across him, Jeff woke, blinked at Jensen, then tried to let him pass. They wound up in a tangle of limbs and blankets that had them both giggling like kids until Jensen just stopped and laid right where he was on top of Jeff. He loved Jeff’s laugh.

 

“Well, that was graceful,” Jeff said.

 

Jensen muffled his laugh against Jeff’s shoulder. “Wanna try that again?”

 

“No. I want you right here. Where you goin,’ sweetheart?”

 

“To make coffee.”

 

Jeff snaked his hand between them to where their cocks were together, Jensen’s fully awake, Jeff’s just getting with the program. “I can help you wake up,” Jeff said.

 

Jeff jerked him quick, and before Jensen even had time to think about what was happening, he was coming, his come slicking his cock and Jeff’s hand and their bellies. When Jensen caught his breath he groaned.

 

“Now I really have to get up,” he said. “Another couple of minutes and we’re gonna be glued together.”

 

Jensen slid off of Jeff and back into the middle of the bed to lie on his back. He played idly with the come on his stomach. He looked sideways at Jared, still dead to the world.

 

“What are we doing, Jeff?” Jensen whispered.

 

“We’re just…trying something new.”

 

“And you’re okay with this?”

 

Jeff didn’t answer so Jensen poked him in the side. “Talk to me, old man.”

 

“I don’t know. I don’t know if I’m okay with it. But I want it. And I’m willing to give it a try.”

 

“Okay,” Jensen said. “Okay. So we give it a try.”

 

“So we give it a try.”

 

***

 

Jensen cooked a big breakfast and had it ready by the time Jared and Jeff came out of the bedroom. Jared was dressed again in his jeans and t-shirt. Jeff was in his boxers (the bastard didn’t have to teach that day). On the table, Jensen had peanut butter and banana waffles with peanut butter he’d ground himself. He had a bowl of scrambled eggs with bacon and leeks and white cheddar. He had a country ham steak. He had fresh squeezed orange juice with crushed and whole strawberries mixed throughout. Jared looked a little awestruck when he saw the spread, and Jensen felt a little pulse of pride. Jeff had been eating his cooking for so long that sometimes Jensen forgot just how much he loved making people happy with food.

 

“Eat,” Jensen said. “What time’s your first class?”

 

“Noon,” Jared said, as he and Jeff crowded in at the table. “I love Thursdays.”

 

“Yeah, so does Jeff. You’re both assholes.”

 

“Jensen’s on campus from nine until eight on Thursdays,” Jeff said around a mouthful of waffle.

 

Jensen took a long drink of his coffee. He hated breakfast, too.

 

“This is amazing,” Jared said. His plate was piled so full, it looked like it might overbalance. Jensen smiled into his coffee mug.

 

“Thanks,” he said.

 

“Seriously,” Jared said. “I’d be eating stale Frosted Flakes with milk about three days past its expiration date if I was at home right now.”

 

Jensen grimaced. “I remember those days.”

 

“Jensen only moved in with me so he could use my pots and pans,” Jeff said.

 

“Damn straight, old man. You’d better not forget it.”

 

He stood and drained the rest of his coffee. He straightened his bow tie. “I gotta go,” he said. “Nineteenth Century Philosophers this morning.”

 

“Have fun, kiddo,” Jeff said.

 

“Always,” Jensen said.

 

He leaned down and kissed Jeff’s syrupy mouth, brushed some syrup from Jeff’s beard with his thumb. After a second’s hesitation, he leaned down and kissed Jared, too. Jared blinked at him. He looked surprised and a little pleased, which made Jensen smile. As he walked away, Jeff smacked him on the ass.

 

***

 

Things went on that way for a time. Jared would come to their place at the end of the day unless he had a shift at the bar. He started spending every weekend with them. Jensen would get home from class Friday and he and Jeff would hang out until Jared got off work. They’d fuck until the early hours of the morning, then they’d wake up Saturday and fuck some more, have breakfast, spend the day together. It got comfortable enough that most Saturdays the three of them just lazed around, Jensen grading, Jeff working on his next book (publish or perish was a bitch), Jared studying. It was good. Then Thursday got involved too. Jared only had his noon class, and Jeff was home, and Jared started heading straight to the house after his class. More often than not, Jensen would get home Thursday night to find Jeff and Jared either arguing about what to watch on TV or fucking, Jared bent over the back of the sofa with Jeff buried in his ass. Jensen sometimes felt an uneasy twist in his gut, a bit jealousy, a bit fear, when he thought of the fact that Jeff and Jared were fucking without him, but then he just had to see Jeff grin up at him and invite him to join, and things were right again.

 

During finals week, Jared disappeared for a few days. He said he needed to study without Jeff and Jensen as a distraction, and truthfully, Jeff and Jensen both had finals and final grades to worry about, too, and Jensen thought he’d feel glad for the break.

 

But then two days and nights passed when they didn’t see Jared, and Jensen found himself wondering what Jared was doing. If he was eating okay. If he was sleeping. Who his friends were and what the apartment they shared was like. Was it clean? Did he have an air conditioner? It was an unusually hot spring, already in the high eighties and it was only May, and Jared ran hot. Jensen found himself talking about Jared to Jeff when Jeff was obviously trying to work, and he tried to stop himself, he really did, but he couldn’t help it. Jeff kept saying things like “he’s fine, Jen” and “You’re not his mother, Jen” in this infuriatingly calm way, and finally, to shut him up, Jeff grabbed Jensen by the nape of his neck, threw him onto their bed and handcuffed him to the headboard. He fucked Jensen long and hard enough that day that Jensen could barely sit or shit without wincing, but Jensen felt a little buzzed from the heat of it all that night and the next day, and Jeff kept tackling him at odd intervals the rest of the week, so, mostly, he was able to keep his mind off Jared. Jeff was a really awesome partner that way.

 

Friday of finals week, Jensen was sitting on the deck. He had his laptop open beside him with his grade book, and he had the stack of papers he’d just finished grading next to it, weighted down with an ashtray into which Jensen had just emptied the ash from his pipe. He packed it with a pinch of pot and took a hit, let himself relax into the end of another semester.

 

This deck was his favorite place in their house, big and open, cozy chairs, and their lawn big and wide and green, shaded by trees. Jensen studied here when he first got together with Jeff, wrote here when he started working on his dissertation, took naps out here when it all got to be too much. Jensen had never thought he’d have something like this. He’d never had a steady boyfriend before Jeff, he’d always been broke and just barely scraped his way through school. He used to joke that Jeff was his sugar daddy, but now he had a real job with a real income (that didn’t even come close to Jeff’s; Jeff had tenure, and Jeff had been teaching at the school for over ten years), and he and Jeff had built a life here and he was happy. He should maybe be surprised at how easily Jared was fitting into all of it, but he wasn’t. There was something about Jared that just clicked with them. He just slotted perfectly into place between them.

 

Now that summer was beginning, Jensen was hoping to spend more time with Jared out of bed. Jensen had a summer class, but he’d have every afternoon and evening off. Jeff would be working on his book ( _Hegel and the Question of Language_ ; Jensen didn’t like Hegel, thought he was an arrogant ass, but he thought Jeff’s book would change the way people read the man, so he was proud of Jeff for writing it). Jensen thought maybe he and Jared could do summer things together – run in forest park, go to the Farmer’s market, hit up food truck Fridays, see all the shitty action movies that were coming out.

 

He was thinking about Jared, and he was more than a little stoned, so it seemed like the most natural thing in the world when the gate to the back yard opened, and Jared walked in and up the three steps to the deck.

 

He looked a little tired, his skin more pale than usual and dark circles under his eyes, but still, he looked good. He was wearing a t-shirt that had probably fit him when it started the year but was now just slightly too tight over the chest and shoulders. His hair was curling around his ears and against his neck. He smiled wide at Jensen, showing  his dimples, and Jensen melted a little at the site of it.

 

“You have a dog,” Jensen said.

 

Jared was holding a leash attached to a very big Shepherd  mix that was looking at Jensen like she didn’t trust him.

 

“This is Sadie,” Jared said. “She’s my girl.”

 

“She’s gorgeous,” Jensen said. He stood and crouched in front of her, let her sniff his hand.

 

“You don’t mind her being here? There was too much going on at my place. She was getting anxious.”

 

“Nah,” Jensen said. “Of course I don’t mind.” He rubbed his hands through her thick fur, scratched behind her ears. After a few minutes, she flopped onto her side and let Jensen rub her belly.

 

“She likes you,” Jared says. “Sadie’s a good judge of character.”

 

“Oh yeah?” Jensen squinted up at Jared.

 

“Yeah,” Jared said. “I know because she doesn’t like Chad.”

 

Jensen laughed; he stood. “I’m beginning to think you made Chad up. He’s a comic book character or something.”

 

Jensen put his hand on Jared’s arm and leaned into kiss him. When he pulled back, Jared wrinkled his nose. “Are you stoned, Jen?”

 

Jensen cracked a grin. “Jeff got me an end of the semester present. You want a hit?”

 

“Hell yeah,” Jared said.

 

He let Sadie off leash, pulled a bone the size of Jensen’s forearm from his back pocket and tossed it out into the yard. Sadie chased it, a howl trailing behind her as Jared and Jensen sat on the deck chairs next to each other.

 

They sat quietly for a time, just passing the pipe back and forth between them. Jared wasn’t practiced with a pipe, so the first couple of hits, Jensen leaned over and steadied Jared’s hand and held the lighter for him so he wouldn’t burn his thumb.

 

“Jeff says I’m corrupting you,” Jensen said. He had his head leaned backwards against the chair, and he rolled it to look over at Jared.

 

Jared laughed. “I think you are,” he said. “But I don’t mind. And I don’t see Jeff complaining when I suck his cock.” He gave Jensen a grin that promised all sorts of naughty things, and if Jensen weren’t so stoned, he’d probably make Jared deliver on those promises.

 

“So what’s going on at your house?” Jensen said when he saw Sadie again. She loped up onto the deck with the bone between her jaws and laid down with it, gnawed on the thing like her life depended on it.

 

“Everyone’s packing. Sadie doesn’t like it. She was a shelter dog, and I think sometimes she thinks I’m going to abandon her. Packing must give her dog-memories.”

 

“Packing?” Jensen said. “What’re they packing for?”

 

“It’s the end of the school year, man,” Jared said, tone of his voice clearly saying that the word “duh” was not needed but implied. “They’re going home.”

 

Jensen sat up straight. “And you? Where are you going?”

 

Jared’s smile dropped away. He shrugged and watched Sadie chew her bone. “Apartment’s paid through the end of May.”

 

“That’s two weeks,” Jensen said.

 

“I can find something in two weeks,” Jared said.

 

“Then what?” Jensen said. “You hold down the fort until Chad, Gen, and Aldis come back?”

 

“Uh, no,” Jared said. “No way can I afford a place big enough for the four of us.” Jared rubbed at the back of his neck, shook the hair out of his eyes. “Guess I’ll find a studio or something. Something I can rent month to month.”

 

“Fuck that,” Jensen said. “You’ll stay here.” 

 

The thought of Jared and Sadie living alone in a place cheap enough that Jared could afford it on his Starbuck’s wages and tips from the bar was too depressing for Jensen to stand. He’d lived like that; there was no reason for Jared to if he didn’t have to.

 

“What?” Jared said. “You can’t be serious.”

 

“Why not?” Jensen said. “You’re here all the goddamn time anyway. And Jeff’ll be working on his book, so I’ll be bored out of my damn mind. You can keep me company.”

 

“I don’t know,” Jared said.

 

“Seriously. I want you here, man. I always want you here. There’s something missing when you’re not here.” Jensen paused for a moment to check his brain for the truth of that statement. “And I would not be saying that if I wasn’t so stoned, but it’d be true nonetheless.”

 

“And Jeff?”

 

“Yeah. He wants you here.”

 

“Don’t you think you should ask him that?” Jared said. He scuffed his sneaker along the wood surface of the deck. “It seems like an awfully big decision to make without him.”

 

“Jay,” Jensen said. He leaned forward into Jared’s space. “Give me some credit. I know my husband. When you aren’t in the house, he mopes around like a damn puppy who can’t find his human. We both do.” Jensen pulled Jared in by the nape of the neck. He kissed him on the forehead. “Come stay with us, Jay.”

 

“Okay,” Jared said. “Yeah. I will.”

 

***

 

Jared had to work at the bar that night, so Jensen told him it was okay to leave Sadie here. He tossed a ball to her until she was too tired to run any more, then gave her a big bowl of water and a couple of scrambled eggs. He entered his final grades with a huge sense of accomplishment, then got even more stoned than he had been a few hours earlier. He thought about the things he and Jeff would do to Jared tonight when he got home.

 

When Jeff came home from student conferences, he sat next to Jensen with a beer and stared out over their yard. Jensen moved down from his chair and sat on his hip between Jeff’s legs, his chin resting on Jeff’s knee as Jeff’s hand carded through his hair. He closed his eyes and took long, deep breaths. He could sleep just like this, surrounded by Jeff.

 

Then Sadie barked. Jensen opened his eyes and saw her dart across the yard after a squirrel.

 

“You got something to tell me, sweetheart?” Jeff said, his voice a low, comforting rumble that made Jensen wish he could purr.

 

“She’s Jared’s,” Jensen said. “Her name’s Sadie.”

 

“Huh,” Jeff said.

 

“I didn’t think you’d mind,” Jensen said.

 

“I don’t,” Jeff said. He scratched at Jensen’s scalp. “As long as someone else picks up the poop.”

 

“That’s Jared’s thing, man. Not mine.”

 

“Lazy, Ackles,” Jeff said. “You’re pure lazy.”

 

“You know it.” Jensen turned and looked up at Jeff. “So, I need to run something by you.”

 

“Shoot.”

 

“Jared needs a place to stay.”

 

Jeff sighed and stopped watching Sadie, looked down at Jensen.

 

“Jen…” He rubbed his hand through his beard, sat up straight, took a long pull of his beer.

 

“What?” Jensen said. “Tell me why not. Tell me why he shouldn’t stay here. He’s here all the time anyway.”

 

“We said we’d just give this a try. No one said anything about committing.”

 

“Too late for that, old man, and you know it.”

 

Jensen pulled himself off the ground and sat in his own chair. Sadie walked up to them and made herself comfortable with her chin in Jeff’s lap. Jeff sat quietly, petting her. When Jeff and Jensen had gotten together, Jeff had had an old and greying Rottweiler name Bisou. She’d died the year before, and Jeff had wanted to get another dog but he couldn’t bring himself to go to the shelters. Jeff was the kind of guy who’d take in every single stray dog if he had the space.

 

“It doesn’t have to be a commitment,” Jensen said. “It can just be for the summer. His roommates are going home, and he doesn’t have a home to go to.”

 

“We’re playing with fire as it is with this. What if someone were to find out he’s staying here? What if that information made it to the Dean?”

 

“I think the time to worry about that has come and gone.”

 

“Maybe so,” Jeff said.

 

“Do you not want him here?” Jensen said. “Be honest with me. If this isn’t working for you, then I need to know. That way we can break it off now before anyone gets too attached.”

 

“I thought you just said it was too late for that.”

 

Jensen dragged his hand across his face. He felt frustration build inside him, and he didn’t know what to do with it. But then Jeff put a hand on his knee.

 

“I do want him here,” Jeff said. “I don’t know how good an idea it is, but it seems right to have him here.”

 

“It does,” Jensen agreed.

 

“Fine,” Jeff said. “Tomorrow at breakfast, we’ll sort out the details.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

***

 

Jeff and Jensen went out to dinner. They went to see a movie. It was fun. They hadn’t been out together in a while. It always got like that toward the end of the semester, everything so busy they hardly had time to think about anything other than school. Throw Jared into the mix, and this semester had been even more crazy than normal. So, yeah, it was good, hanging out with Jeff, tangling their feet together under a bar table while they ate tacos and drank cheap beer. Jensen dared Jeff to take a swig of the hot sauce from the table, and he did, and he spent a good ten minutes coughing, tears streaming from his eyes while Jensen cackled at him. When Jeff finally calmed down a little, he just grinned in this pleased way like he’d gladly do it again to make Jensen laugh like that, so Jensen leaned over the table and kissed him. His lips burned a little after from the spice still in Jeff’s mouth.

 

“Jared would like this place,” Jeff said.

 

“Yeah. He would.”

 

At home, Jensen took Sadie outside and let her do her thing, then he tossed the ball to her over and over again. It was an old baseball that he and Jeff played catch with every once in a while, but Sadie had, in one day, pretty much claimed it as her own. Her teeth marks were already a permanent fixture on the skin.

 

Jensen took a shower, and Jeff snuck in after him. They made out a little under the spray, Jensen pressed back against the cool, wet tile, Jeff holding Jensen’s hands above his head just hard enough for his wrists to ache, just the way he liked it. He was turned on. They both were, but neither pushed it any further than that lazy kissing.

 

Out of the shower, they dried off, and Jensen watched Jeff, studied the line of his body, the wide shoulders, the lean waist, the fuzz of hair at his chest and crotch. Jensen pulled him close, kissed his way across Jeff’s damp chest.

 

“I love you,” Jensen said.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

They were on the couch when Jared came home. Jeff was sleeping, his head against the back of the sofa, his mouth hanging wide open, and Jared said, “hey,” quietly, and tried to shush Sadie, who was whining and making soft woofing noises like she couldn’t suppress her excitement. It made Jensen feel crazy, but seeing Jared kind of made him feel the same way.

 

He grabbed Jared’s hand and tugged him down onto the couch, scooted over and crawled on top of him, straddled his lap.

 

“Ugh, Jen, I’m sweaty. I smell like bar.”

 

“I don’t care,” Jensen said.

 

He tilted Jared’s face up and kissed it—kissed his cheeks, the mole by his nose, his dimples, kissed his eyelids and his closed lips.

 

“Hey,” Jensen said when he’d finally gotten what he wanted and sat back.

 

Jared grinned at him. “Hey,” he said.

 

“Did you eat?” Jensen said.

 

“Yeah,” Jared said.

 

“Bar food?”

 

“Leave the poor kid alone,” Jeff grumbled. Jensen tipped over until he was laying on the couch in between them, his head in Jeff’s lap, his legs over Jared’s legs.

 

He looked at Jared. “Wanna fuck?” he said.

 

Jared nodded. He had a coy grin on his face and he stood. He stripped his shirt over his head and unbuttoned his jeans as he walked into the hallway and down into their bedroom. Jensen and Jeff both followed.

 

In the bedroom, Jared was on his back on top of the covers, one hand behind his head, the other lazily stroking his cock. Jeff gave Jensen a little push, and Jensen moved to the bed, crawled in next to Jared. He took over stroking Jared’s cock for him, and Jared stroked his in turn, and they stayed like that for a while, just watching each other and getting each other off. Then Jeff climbed into the bed behind Jensen, kissed the curve of his shoulder and wrapped his hand around Jensen’s cock. He rubbed his cock against Jensen’s ass, the feel of it maddening as it grew hard and rubbed between his cheeks and over his hole, as the head of it bumped against his balls. Jeff manhandled him up onto his hands and knees and kept rubbing his cock against him. Jared was below him now, his cock red, hard, beautiful.

 

“Suck his cock like a good little slut,” Jeff said.  
  
Jensen wasted no time, he took the head of Jared’s cock into his mouth as Jeff opened him up and worked his cock inside of Jensen’s body. Jensen cried out around Jared’s cock when Jeff hit his prostate, and Jared gripped his hands in Jensen’s hair. There was so much sensation, Jensen felt wild with it. He let Jeff fuck into him and hold him still, and he forced himself down on Jared’s cock until he could almost fit it all into his throat. He wanted to fondle Jared’s balls or fondle his own or just goddamned hold on to something, but he wasn’t steady enough, and when Jared came in his mouth, Jensen moaned around the mouthful, swallowed as much as he could, though there was too much for him to take it all, and he could feel it on his lips and chin. He nuzzled into Jared’s stomach, Jared’s still hard cock against his cheek, Jared’s hand in his hair, Jeff’s hand between his shoulder blades and holding him down as he fucked into him. Jeff finally, _finally_ reached around and stroked Jensen’s cock in time with his thrusts and Jensen was coming before he knew it, all over the bedspread. When Jeff pulled out, Jared grabbed Jensen by the shoulders and pulled him up his body until they were face to face. Jared kissed him long and hard, and Jeff worked his way up the line of Jensen’s back until they were all in a tangle together at the head of the bed.

 

Jensen closed his eyes and sunk into the bodies around him. He didn’t know what would happen tomorrow when they talked about Jared moving in with them. He didn’t know if it would be for the summer or forever. All Jensen knew was that he was happy with where he was right now; he’d think about the rest tomorrow.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Author's notes: First I'd like to thank the lovely fufaraw for being my beta despite having a million other things to do. She is awesome and lovely and deserves many hugs and much gratitude. Any remaining errors are mine; I fiddled with this quite a bit at the last minute. Second, I have to thank my artist beelikej for being so fantastic and for making amazing art that pretty much plucked the boys as I saw them in this fic straight from my brain. I feel so lucky to have been able to work with her. RUN TO HER ART POST NOW, OKAY?? Honestly, I could not have asked for a better artist to have claimed this fic. And of course a huge thank you to the spn_j2_bigbang mods for running this challenge like pros.
> 
> And now for some musings...This fic could not be more different from my last big bang. Last year's big bang was months of angsting and plotting and worrying. It was the first time I had written anything with such a big word count and the first time I had ever done big bang and the first time I had ever dabbled in that genre, etc., etc., etc. This year, this fic pretty much took over my body and brain for a week straight. I wrote it in a flash and had an absolute blast doing it. There are things that i would do to this fic if I had more time, but I don't (and, hey, that's what sequels are for, right?), and in the end, I had so much fun writing it that I'm really happy to post it and share it with everyone. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. :D


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